Wayne Lawrence
Sport for Social Cohesion / Kakuma (Turkana County), Kenya
Located in north-west Kenya, on the outskirts of the town of Kakuma, Kakuma Refugee Camp was established in 1992 when thousands of children displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War arrived – a group also known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan”.
Today, the camp houses refugees and asylum seekers from a total of 19 countries, including Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda.
As of September 2019, the Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement were home to a total of 191,500 people. Young people aged between 15 and 35 make up at least 40% of the camp’s population.
photo Gallery
2019 – IOC / Wayne Lawrence - All Rights Reserved
Since the early 90s, the UNHCR and the IOC have been working together to support refugees through sport. The IOC founded the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) in 2017 as part of its ongoing commitment to leverage sport to help protect and support displaced people across the globe. At Kakuma Camp, this partnership ensures access to safe spaces dedicated to sports and arts activities for thousands of refugee children from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds who are facing challenges stemming from past trauma and stress.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1974 in Saint Kitts, Wayne Lawrence is a Brooklyn-based visual artist. His work aims to shed light on the complexities of the human experience, exploring ideas of community, purpose and the relationship between humankind and our natural and adopted environment.
Wayne Lawrence’s photographs have been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of Art, the FLAG Art Foundation, Amerika Haus in Munich, the Open Society Institute and the African American Museum of Philadelphia, among other galleries.
His work has appeared on the covers of National Geographic and TIME and has been published by National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, AARP, TIME, Rolling Stone, Variety, Men’s Journal, Mother Jones, Mare, COLORS and Newsweek.
Wayne Lawrence is currently working on his second book, Black Blood, which journeys to the heart of J’ouvert carnival traditions in the Eastern Caribbean.
