It is Not Too Late to Educate A Refugee

Written By: Christian Maboko

In the year 2013 two years after joining primary school back in south sudan in our small village called akob, my life was set against the backdrop of extended civil war between the government and the rebolls ,a war that claim over four hundred thousand people (400000) including my father just after cerebrating our independence in 2011 . My mother have eight of us three of my older brothers were claimed by that war so i became the first older to my younger siblings who are still alive today. 

When i was growing  up our life was so peaceful in our village i had hope to join school as soon as i became eligible ,i remember my mother used to tell me how education would make me someone in the future.  One day i was awakened by the collapse of AKA-47 and my mom was screaming bol wake up we are about to die, so i woke up off my eye was blurry, try to see things I couldn’t see any things because is was early in the morning ,when i got the opportunity to see thing i was seeing bullets flying through. My mother clashed my younger sisters spreading toward the nile we followed her and continued to run to seek safety on the other side.  My mother strategize and she said we have to go to kenya. We were introduced in refugees camp kakuma, which is located in north western kenya near the board of south soudan and kenya.  Life in kakuma is very tough ,120° everyday but i had hopes  because they told me i will be able to join school , and my thoughts were all about to school, school was something i was risking my life because want wanted to learn how to ready and how to navigate and provide something for myself and my family , my mother told me education is the only tool that can change my narratives. 

I got the admission in shambe primary school kakuma started from standard one in 2014, few months later conflict broke in kakuma refugee camp november 2014 between two tribes from south sudan Nuer and Dinka , I can’t t forget this moment because this was when my mother was killed by mens from another tribe and i became the father and mother to my younger siblings at the age of 13, this was moment something clicked deep in my mind how i’m i going to take care of my younger sister?  And we had no relative in the camp , i lost the compass direction because i was going through traumatic situation. The conflict ended and we started new life , i wasn’t able to go back school and leave my sisters alone. One day blessing came from nowhere i  a burundian mother volunteered to raise us at her home, she’s s my mother she’s the women i love most in the world. 

I got the another chance go back to school , i tried my best to work really hard to perform well in my school but sometimes my mind could go back far. I continue to learn and bend over my backward to excel and flourish since education is my only way,  i was a good student until i graduate from primary to secondary school and continue till now.  If opportunity is provided to refugees  the transformation could occur and then they can thrive and become citizens of this world no one choose to be a refugee but these refugees can choose who they want to become in the future by giving them education because education is the only tool that can transcend refugee circumstance and become useful member in their communities and the society at large.