MayHem Threads

We equip displaced youth (16–30) along the Kenya-Somalia border with tools to fight injustice, build economic power, and heal communities. Through entrepreneurship, climate action, and unapologetic advocacy for disability rights, SRHR, and gender equality, we turn survival into strategy

Our Approach Explore

Our Work

Economic Power in the Shadow of Displacement

In a region where 78% of young refugees face forced labor or sex work, we ignite refugee-led entrepreneurship. We don't create jobs; we dismantle aid dependency.

Climate Justice as a Human Rights Need

We train pastoralists in regenerative farming because we believe that the border's dust holds our future's seeds.

Bodily Autonomy as Radical Resistance

For young refugees—especially disabled, queer, and gender-oppressed bodies—safety is revolutionary. Our social justice warriors document police brutality via digital advocacy.

We ignite refugee-led revolution at the intersection of injustice.

Rooted in the Kenya-Somalia borderlands, we recognize young displaced people not as victims, but as rights-holders and architects of change.

Our Rights-based Approach

Centering Agency, Not Charity

We recognize young refugees as rights-holders—not beneficiaries—equipping them to claim their inherent rights to safety, health, and self-determination through community-led advocacy and legal empowerment.

Dismantling Systemic Barriers

Our work targets the root causes of injustice: discriminatory laws, climate apartheid, and gendered violence, demanding accountability from states and institutions that fail to uphold refugees' rights to land, bodily autonomy, and dignified work.

Nothing About Us Without Us

Every initiative—from disability-inclusive climate projects to SRHR telehealth—is co-designed by displaced youth, ensuring their voices reshape policies, budgets, and power structures that affect their lives.

Our Impact

Through our innovative programs and community-driven approach, we've created lasting positive change among the refugee communities, empowering them and building sustainable futures.

Community Empowerment

Building stronger communities through education, healthcare access, and sustainable development initiatives.

Healthcare Access

Improving access to quality healthcare services and reproductive health education across vulnerable communities.

Sustainable Development

Creating lasting positive change through environmental initiatives and sustainable community development programs.

Success Stories

Between March and August 2023, MayHem, in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) and partner organisations, executed an interactive radio series across Somalia to engage citizens and gather insights on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services and related issues. The project aimed to understand and enhance women's access to SRH services while addressing concerns like Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)..

Amina Hassan

Parallel to the radio engagement, MayHem conducted five focus group discussions (FGDs) in each Federal Member State of Somalia. These discussions targeted marginalised groups, yielding a total of 270 participants. The FGDs validated and deepened the findings from the radio series, ensuring the inclusion of minority voices in the analysis.

Halima Abdi

We conducted a data-driven research on the impact of war on health services in 3 major cities in Somalia. The project sought to identify existing projects working with displaced women living in refugee camps and data collection in 4 public hospitals around Mogadishu