The National Museum of Kenya hosted this exhibition to raise awareness for people of Makonde origin who are stateless and face barriers in everyday life.
Photo: UNHCR/A. Okumu
Mecelista Nchewa has lived in Kenya for most of her life, still this lady in her seventies has no identification documents. As a result, she has been arrested at least two times and asked to go back home. Her response to the police was that she has no other home but Kenya. She happens to be of Makonde origin.
The photo is part of the exhibition “The Struggle to Belong” about the resilience of the Makonde people living at the margins of Kenyan society. UNHCR marked the first anniversary of its #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024 with this exhibition in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Photo: UNHCR/A. Okumu
The majority of Makonde children face a future with limited opportunities because they cannot go to school or cannot graduate. For this to become reality, they need a birth certificate which most of them lack.
If the birth is not registered before six months, the parents would need to bring supporting documents which they do not have. UNHCR and its partners work to assist late birth registration for stateless persons by way of mobile birth registration in order to reach as many as possible.
The picture is part of the exhibition “The Struggle to Belong” which marked the first anniversary of the #IBelong Campaign in Nairobi´s National Museum.
Photo: UNHCR/A. Okumu
Compelling black and white pictures by Greg Constantine, presented in the video “The right to belong: children and statelessness”, caught the attention of passers-by on New York´s emblematic Times Square. The film from the project Nowhere People was produced in collaboration with UNHCR to mark the first anniversary of the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024. Photo: UNHCR/ B. Hamilton
Adjame, one of the most populous neighborhoods of the Ivorian capital Abidjan, saw lively discussions after the screening of a video on statelessness which marked the first anniversary of the #IBelong Campaign. Adjame has a mixed population from all over West Africa, many of them lacking documents.
Photo: UNHCR/N. Sturm
UNHCR showed a film about how statelessness affects boys and girls in a district of the Ivorian capital which is considered a melting pot of cultures. In the breaks between the public screening, UNHCR staff engaged in discussions with the local population about key messages of the film.
Photo: UNHCR/N. Sturm
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