Illustrated Memoirs

Empowering young refugees through storytelling.

As global aid wanes, Dr. Kate Carlier Currie partners with young refugees in Nakivale, Uganda, to turn their lived experiences into illustrated memoirs, showing how creative expression becomes a lifeline, empowering young people to reclaim their identity, transform their sense of possibility, and lift their community despite overwhelming odds.

First Look

In 2025 we recorded a few short interviews with project participants. This reel can provide a glimpse into the feature project.

Story

Told through the hand-drawn memoirs of young refugees in Nakivale, Uganda, this film explores the resilience of young refugees and the impact of creative engagement on their self-perception.

In 2025, Kate Carlier Currie and Enock Sadiki traveled to the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in southwest Uganda to run the Illustrated Memoir Project with 44 young refugees. 

Through their work, Kate and Enock witnessed something powerful unfold. Many of these young people, brilliant, driven, and deeply imaginative, saw little hope in their lives. Yet through storytelling and illustration, they articulated their pasts, reframed their futures, and reignited the hope that had dimmed with displacement. At the same time, Kate and Enock discovered a grassroots, youth-led movement in the settlement: young refugees creating groups, organizing classes, and supporting peers through their mutual trauma.

This documentary follows Kate and Enock as they return for another year of the Illustrated Memoirs project to work with several of these remarkable young people, including Abigael, Asaph, Kevine, David, Samuel, Ephreme, and Melissa, as well as many new children, to explore how creativity, mentorship, and self-expression are transforming lives, even in the face of shrinking global support and a rapidly growing humanitarian crisis. 

The film illuminates our shared humanity and the responsibility to respond to a global crisis of displacement currently impacting more than 120 million people across the globe.​

Setting

Nakivale Refugee Settlement is the oldest refugee settlement in Africa. Located in southwest Uganda, Nakivale is home to more than 285,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

Back Story: The Illustrated Memoir Project

Developed by Dr. Kate Carlier Currie, an educator and researcher based in Cincinnati, the Illustrated Memoir Project is a curriculum that blends literacy, visual storytelling, and personal reflection. Each participant writes a true story from their life, then creates original illustrations to support the story. When complete, every memoir is published as an individual book. Every participant receives a copy of their professionally bound book.

After books are published as both physical and digital books, they are shared as open educational resources. This provides young people in the West with a richer understanding of refugee experience and the drivers of global migration as well as contextually relevant materials for young learners in other refugee settlements.

This seemingly simple process has shown profound results. Students become more:

  • self-aware, understanding their personal histories in new ways

  • hopeful, able to articulate dreams and future goals

  • empowered, recognizing their own voice and agency

After years of successful implementation in Ohio schools, Kate brought the project to refugee youth in East Africa in 2025, beginning in the Nakivale settlement.

More information is available at illustratedmemoir.org.

Back Story: Nakivale Refugee Settlement

In 2025, as many as 8,000 new arrivals per week entered the settlement following widespread regional conflict, just as significant portions of U.S. and international aid were withdrawn.

The result: more than 80% of children are out of school, limited access to safe employment, lack of food leading to malnutrition, overcrowded shelters and schools, increased risk of exploitation and trauma.

Yet young people in Nakivale continue to create opportunities where none exist. They teach. They mentor. They organize. They write and illustrate their own stories. This is the heart of Illustrated Memoirs.

The Illustrated Memoir Project continues to work with young people in Nakivale and mentors past participants to run the project themselves in the future.

The work is made possible through a partnership with the international non-profit, Alight (formerly American Refugee Committee).

In 2025, the Ugandan Office of the Prime Minister Commandant in charge of the settlement gave initial approval for filming in the settlement by the Memoir Project team.

Access

Production Plan

We intend to send North Forty’s production crew (max 4) with Kate to Uganda in May of 2026 for up to three weeks to document a new session of the Illustrated Memoir Project. Additionally, after initial production in Uganda is complete, a small crew will film Kate as she assembles the books in Cincinnati and prepares for the publishing/book printing process. Finally, a small production crew will follow Kate back to Uganda to deliver the finished bound books to their authors. 

Goals

By documenting the Illustrated Memoirs Project and telling the stories of some of the youth involved, this film aims to:

  1. Elevate Youth Voices in the Global Refugee Narrative

    Showcase the perspectives, talents, and leadership of young refugees whose stories are often overshadowed by statistics and policy debates

  2. Demonstrate the Impact of Creative Engagement on Self-Efficacy and Agency

    Illuminate how autobiographical storytelling and illustration can improve self-perception, emotional resilience, and future orientation for displaced youth.

  3. Contextualize the Human Consequences of Global Displacement

    Offer a nuanced look at life inside Nakivale during a period when international aid budgets were cut, and as many as 8,000 new residents arrived weekly

  4. Highlight Refugee-Led Innovation and Community Building

    Document how young people, despite profound instability, are using their skills to educate, empower, and uplift their peers.

  5. Inspire Philanthropic, Policy, and Educational Engagement

    Mobilize viewers, organizations, institutions, and government agencies to support scalable programs, especially The Illustrated Memoir Project and other youth-driven initiatives.

Approach

To empower refugee youth and amplify the Illustrated Memoir Project’s mission of building self-efficacy, the film must avoid two common pitfalls in refugee-focused media:

  1. The “white savior” narrative. 

  2. The reductive aesthetics of “poverty porn”. 

To avoid these, our approach is intentionally designed to center agency, nuance, and dignity at every stage.

Anchored by the Illustrated Memoir Project, the documentary uses a hybrid storytelling approach that includes:

  • Observational verité capturing daily life in Nakivale

  • Intimate, grounded interviews with youth participants, community leaders, and Kate—conducted in situ rather than as traditional talking heads

  • Art-driven animated and hybrid sequences that bring the youth’s illustrated memoirs to life

  • Historical and cultural context that situates Nakivale within the broader global displacement crisis

PERSPECTIVE

The film is rooted in the perspectives and voices of the young refugees themselves. Their words, drawings, and lived experiences guide the narrative—foregrounding their agency and ensuring the project does not inadvertently drift into a white-savior framing. 

BALANCING TONE

While the documentary addresses tragic realities—unimaginable loss, displacement, instability—it also embraces moments of humor, joy, and the beauties of everyday life. This tonal balance reflects the fullness of the characters’ experiences and counters limiting narratives that depict refugee communities only through suffering.

BREAKING THE WALL

Because the camera’s presence is often impossible to ignore—especially among children—we intentionally integrate that presence into the storytelling rather than hide it. Eschewing conventional studio-style talking heads, we keep interviews rooted in the environment, allowing context, atmosphere, and relational dynamics to deepen each scene.

Look and Feel

Look and Feel

DIGNITY FIRST

A dignity-first visual and structural approach guides the film. We avoid voyeuristic framing, decontextualized hardship imagery, and narrative simplifications. Instead, the camera lingers with care and respect, reflecting the trust extended to us by the youth and community.

HAND-DRAWN ELEMENTS

The hand-drawn illustrations created by the participants are shown throughout the film, shaping the aesthetic and emotional tone. By seeing and hearing these animated drawings, which overlap with verité moments or appear as relevant imagery objects, the audience is drawn closer to the texture of the stories themselves.

Together, these elements form a storytelling approach that ensures the film is authentically participant-led, visually imaginative, ethically grounded, and emotionally resonant—crafted to inspire not pity, but solidarity and action.

Characters

The Team

The Illustrated Memoir Team works with staff from Alight and employees refugee settlement residents as drivers and interpreters.

English is the official language of Uganda and most people speak and understand English well. Newly arrived residents and those who have not had the opportunity to attend school may be more comfortable speaking French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, or a variety of other Bantu languages.

Kate Carlier Currie

Kate is an educator and researcher based in Ohio. She holds a PhD in educational leadership and has been running the Illustrated Memoir Project since 2019. She is the founder and executive director of the non-profit Maketank Inc.

Enock Sadiki

Enock Sadiki was born and raised in Nakivale. In 2014, at the age of 9 he and his family were resettled in the US with the help  of UNHCR. In 2025 he returned to Nakivale with the Illustrated Memoir Project as an intern. Enock still has a number of family members living in Nakivale.

In addition to Enock and Kate, the following are people with whom deep relationships were built in 2025, and who, based on their transformative experience with the project, intend to return and help as mentors in 2026.Their stories are examples of those that will be told as Kate and Enock build new relationships with participants in 2026. 

Kevine

At the age of 12, Mugisha Kevine fled violence in the DRC with her family, finding asylum in Uganda. She is currently working for the Wakati Foundation, a refugee led organization providing psychosocial support to refugees in Nakivale. In 2026 she will move to Canada for college after winning a scholarship through a highly competitive contest.

Ephreme

Ephreme lives alone in Nakivale, his family remains in DR Congo. Ephreme spends his time teaching young children who do not have access to school about the importance of caring for our environment. He writes lessons for the children about the importance of clean water and soil and the need to recycle and reduce waste. He also teaches settlement residents to make their own soap to improve hygiene and reduce illness.

Abigael

Abigael is a Congolese poet, writer, and advocate. She is one of the founders of Tiba Ink, an organization of young writers in Nakivale who work together to refine their art and reach out to other young people. Since 2016 she has used storytelling to navigate her journey as a refugee and to champion gender equality.

David

David is a naturally gifted artist and illustrator. He has finished secondary school and now taken it upon himself to teach young children in the settlement how to draw and paint. He was delighted to be able to share his books that he created with some of his students. In the coming years David will be leading illustrated memoir projects in Nakivale himself.

Asaph

Asaph was orphaned during the violence in Congo and now lives alone in Nakivale. He writes under the name Gwaljos the Poet and is the head of the writers’ group, Tiba Ink. He works hard to encourage other young writers to make their voices heard and come together to support each other.

Samuel

Samuel and his family fled war in South Sudan in 2014 and received asylum in Uganda. He is a brilliant and earnest young man who volunteers his spare time working at the childrens’ library in Nakivale. Samuel and his sister Janet were orphaned in March of 2025 when their father died. Despite all of their challenges they continue studying in earnest in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow.

Melissa

In 2015, at the age of 10, Melissa and her family fled war in Burundi and were granted asylum in Uganda. They were resettled in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Her family has faced extreme hardship since relocating to Nakivale. Melissa hopes to one day run an organization that helps widows and orphans.

Janet

Janet was born in South Sudan and fled the war with her family in 2014. Since being orphaned by the death of their father in 2025 Janet has had to take on even more responsibility for her self and her siblings. She recently completed secondary school and must now forge a path forward for her family.

The Film Making Team

Kate Carlier Currie, Co-Director

Biz Young, Producer

North Forty Team

Jeff Ostenson

Charles Atkinson

Ethan Parrish

Skylar Wagner

North Forty Projects:

(trailers - links to the feature films available upon request)

About North Forty

North Forty has been producing documentaries and other commercial media since 2006. They have 10 regional Emmy nominations for their work broadcasted on cable and public television, and their films have been distributed on Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Prime, TED, and NBC Universal Sports Network.

https://hellonorthforty.com/

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