Makol J. Chuol ’27 has secured a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant as part of efforts to promote peace and build stronger communities worldwide.
This summer, Chuol will lead the Voices of Amani project in Kenya, addressing ethnic conflict in the Kakuma Refugee Camp by empowering teachers as “Peace Champions.”
Through training in empathy, dialogue, and conflict resolution, the project aims to reach over three hundred students, fostering cross-cultural understanding and sustainable reconciliation of one of Kenya’s long-standing refugee communities.
“It feels like a full circle moment, but not the end of the story; it feels like a beginning,” says Chuol. “It reflects what it means when a place like Macalester believes in you and gives you the opportunity to return and create change where you once felt limited. I am returning not as someone who escaped the story, but as someone ready to help rewrite it.”
The work is especially meaningful to Chuol, who grew up in the same refugee camp.
“I have experienced, witnessed stories of pain and resilience in Kakuma that have stayed with me like a song in my head, moments where I wished I could do more,” Chuol said. “This grant is not just support—it is permission to act on the voices I could no longer ignore.”
Chuol overcame significant obstacles at a young age, living without his family since the age of twelve and eventually traveling to Minnesota to study computer science.
“I remember long lines for water and food that was never enough, and classrooms where learning often meant listening closely and making sense of what you could,” says Chuol. “Yet even in those moments, there was laughter and community, and those experiences shaped me into someone who values resilience and purpose. I did not have the easiest childhood, but it gave me a reason to make things better for someone else.”
Through it all, Chuol has prioritized giving back to others. Despite his busy schedule as a student-athlete on Macalester’s track and field team, he still dedicates time to teach children in Kenya online, connecting with them from thousands of miles away.
Now, the children in Kakuma will soon have even more of his attention, along with the financial backing of the Davis Projects for Peace.
About the Davis Projects for Peace
Established in 2007 by philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, the Davis Projects for Peace program empowers college students to design and implement grassroots initiatives that promote peace, often in regions facing systemic challenges.
Since its founding, the initiative has supported more than 2,200 projects in 150 countries. The 2026 cohort is composed of 142 projects in 59 countries.
Since 2007, Macalester has participated in dozens of Davis Projects for Peace. View other recent projects.