Since 2019 Maketank Inc’s Illustrated Memoir Project has engaged immigrant and refugee youth in Cincinnati to share their life stories through their own words and images. The project centers the lived experience and unique funds of knowledge of the participants, helping to increase intellectual self-trust, literacy, and social emotional learning. This work positions young people as the author of their own story, allowing them to define themselves rather than be defined by others. Seeing themselves as knowledge producers, published authors and artists, has a profound effect on the self-efficacy of these young people who are too often viewed through a deficit lens.
Each participant in the project writes some true story from their life then creates original illustrations to support the story. Maketank then publishes each memoir as an individual book that can be shared on-line or as a physical book through libraries, bookstores and schools. Each project participant receives a copy of their completed memoir, then Maketank cultivates different avenues to share the books with the broader public to help the community better understand the experiences and viewpoints of our newest community members.
In the past six years more than 200 illustrated memoirs have been created through the project, predominantly by students at Aiken High School and a few classes at Western Hills High School. In May of this year Dr. Kate Carlier Currie, the executive director of Maketank Inc, and Enock Sadiki, a former project participant, current board member and intern, traveled to the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda to run the Illustrated Memoir Project with 44 young people there. This was the first of many planned iterations of the project to take place in refugee settlements. Nakivale was selected as the site of this first implementation because Enock was born and raised there. Enock and his family resettled in the US with the help of UNHCR when Enock was 9 years old. In 2023 Enock became a United States citizen.
The project has taken place on a variety of different timelines over the years, but in essence it requires 30 hours of work time to complete. In Nakivale, the project was scheduled to align with the three week break in school instruction time in May. Currie and Sadiki met with a group of 22 students each morning for 2 hours, then another group of 22 in the afternoon for 2 hours, five days a week throughout the three-week break. All of the participants completed their memoir materials, which will be assembled into completed books this summer in Ohio, then shipped back to the participants in Uganda and shared on-line as digital books. All of the books from the Nakivale project should be available on Maketank’s website by September, 2025. Books are available to purchase at cost or to view as e-books on the site.
Nakivale Refugee Settlement is the oldest settlement in Africa and the fifth largest. Nakivale is home to more than 285,000 residents. Since January of this year Nakivale has been receiving more than 8,000 new refugees every week, most fleeing the increased unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This influx corresponds with a dramatic reduction in funding, requiring layoffs of staff and decreased food for new arrivals and existing residents.
Maketank partnered with the international non-profit Alight to facilitate the project in Nakivale. Alight has been working in Nakivale for decades providing a variety of support services. In 2019 Alight built Nakivale’s first library and it was in this library compound that the Illustrated Memoir Project took place. The majority of the project participants were originally from Congo or South Sudan, ranging in age from 11-21.
The Maketank team is planning to return to Nakivale in 2026 to bring the Illustrated Memoir Project opportunity to more young people living in the settlement. They are also actively developing partnerships to expand the project to additional settlements in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya.
If you would like to learn more about the project, read some of the completed memoirs, or donate to support this on-going work you can visit www.illustratedmemoir.org or follow their work on Instagram @illustratedmemoir.
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