Desert Days Of the Forgotten

Purpose

Desert Days of the Forgotten is a community initiative aimed at researching and documenting the lived realities of low-income migrant workers employed as shepherds in Kuwait. The project examines the living and working conditions of shepherds in different farming locations in Kuwait. Desert Days is one of three community projects to emerge through the BUILD program, implemented by the en.v initiative and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

As a subset of the migrant worker population, shepherds are largely absent from existing research on low-income migrant workers in Kuwait which leans towards a focus on domestic workers and workers in the construction sector. There is little official and accessible data on the terms of their employment, the policies governing their contracts and legal rights, working locations, their relationship with employers and their everyday lives in the desert. Local civil society groups, including those advocating for migrant worker rights havea limited understanding of the lived experiences of this section of workers and the specific challenges they face. The few reports that do exist indicate that this subsection of workers is particularly vulnerable to labor rights violations and unsafe working conditions, specifically with reference to the extreme climatic conditions in the desert areas where they reside and work.

Migrant shepherds live and work in the most remote areas of Kuwait and largely lead a nomadic, seasonal lifestyle due to the country’s extreme climate and their livestock's grazing migratory patterns. Our report highlights their living and working conditions in more detail.

In addition to raising awareness, Desert Days sought to use the findings of our research to design a sustainable and cost-effective dwelling prototype suitable for the desert environment and shepherds’ needs and that can be constructed collaboratively.

Objectives

To document living and working conditions of low-income migrant workers employed as shepherds in Kuwait’s deserts
To showcase shepherds' lives through their own eyes
To design a dwelling prototype that:
1. Can provide for the basic necessities of the shepherds who inhabit them,
2. Is sustainable and durable within the constraints of fast-changing extreme weather conditions in Kuwait’s deserts,
3. Is cost-effective and can be replicated across the country at scale.

research

Research

(a) Interviews and surveys with shepherds and their employers
(b) Migration mapping to identify patterns in shepherds' movements
(c) Desk research into existing policies and regulations

Documentation:

Visual

- Engage the shepherds and provide them with the tools to visually document their lives.
- Exhibit this collection of photographs and videos, online and offline, to:

provide a platform for these migrant shepherds and their voices,
familiarize the broader public to their lived realities, and
encourage employers to utilize the dwelling prototype as a sustainable living solution.

Report

Our findings and recommendations to support future work in the field.

Our Team

Meet the passionate people behind our cause and those who go beyond to support us.

Batul Sadliwala

Raised in Kuwait, Batul is an international development professional with expertise in civic engagement and impact assessment in the Middle East. Her research interests include migration and development policy as well as citizenship in the Arabian Peninsula. She holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA in International Relations from the American University of Kuwait.

Dalia Aly

I am an architect, designer, and creator who graduated from Kuwait University’s College of Architecture. My core value is to strive for sustainability and ethics in design by looking for both the beauty and opportunity in re imagining and turning fleeting moments from everyday life into permanent - and functional - displays of art and space to be enjoyed by all.

Hassan Ashour

This is Hassan. I studied BSc Biomedical Sciences and currently work at Al Amiri Hospital.

Nadeen Dakkak

Nadeen Dakkak is a UK-based academic whose research is interested in migration in the Gulf region, particularly within the field of literary and cultural studies. Born and raised in Kuwait, she is also personally invested in pushing against the exclusion and marginalization of migrants in the country.

Nazreen Nazeer

Nazreen Nazeer is an Indian from Kuwait whose professional experience is across investment management, financial advisory and audit. She enjoys musing on the sociocultural aspects of her ever-evolving identity. She tries to volunteer her time and energy toward community initiatives that want to see more people actually thrive, as a way of giving back to society and simultaneously indulging her amateur anthropologist side.

Nourah Al-Sulaiman

Nourah Al-Sulaiman holds a BA in International Relations with a minor in History. She joined Migrant-rights.org’s team in 2017 and has been managing the Ensaniyat Fellowship Program in Kuwait and Qatar since. Through the Fellowship, Nourah works with youth members of the society to utilize the power of dialogue and initiating conversations to achieve change in attitudes towards migrant and domestic workers in the Gulf.

Lubna Saif Abbas

Ever since Lubna Saif Abbas was a child of six, she was fascinated with beads and the way they were used. In the summer of 1970 while her family was living in Indiana her father took them on a road trip down South and then West going through several Cherokee reservations in Georgia. At one reservation Lubna recalls a group of women in a corner using quills and beautiful big round pony beads in primary colors. Her family wanted to continue to visit other areas, she said “all I wanted to do was watch these women as they conversed and were beading away. I was glued to that corner and did not want to move or see anything else.” Attending American University to obtain a Bachelors of Arts and Science in Graphic Design and a Minor in Art History. Upon returning to Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1991, Lubna began a fifteen year career introducing and developing the field of Marketing Communications. During this period, Lubna was delving and researching textiles, embroidery, embellishing and beads as well as continuing her interest in papers and crafts. Learning from masters in lamp-work, off loom weaving and precious metal clays the groundwork was established. At the same time, Lubna was intensively creating unique objects of beaded body adornment.

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