Ajok Chol, 18, a South Sudanese refugee (L), performs a taekwondo kick during a sparring demonstration with another refugee girl as part of a showcase performance at a sports day event at the Kalobeyei Sports Complex in Kalobeyei on March 28, 2025. [AFP]

'To protect the community'

Taekwondo black-belt teacher Caroline Ambani, who travels sporadically from Nairobi, pushes the sport's discipline in each lesson.

Yelling through the chatter, she tried to bring the excitable girls to order: "Here we come to sweat!"

But her affection and pride in her students are evident, particularly girls like Salha.

"Some of these girls have been able to protect themselves from aggressors," she told AFP.

However, the three-year programme, run by the International Rescue Committee and supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is coming to an end due to funding.

Instructors hope the skills they have imparted will be enough to see the girls through the coming years.

One of the captains, 18-year-old Ajok Chol, said she will keep training.

She worries about violence in the camp -- like what she fled in South Sudan aged 14.

"We were so scared about that," she told AFP. "We came here in Kakuma to be in peace."

Now she wants to become an instructor herself, "to teach my fellow girls... to protect the community."