pdfDirect link to MultimediaItem 1 of 1RF2124031Publication Date:September 12, 2017Location:GambellaKule Refugee CampCountry:EthiopiaEducation Report 2017 PDF - Ethiopia:Nyahok's Quest - EnglishCase study (Photo: RF2122972) Nyahok's Quest Nyahok Reath was a star student at her primary school and had her heart set on becoming a pilot. But secondary education remains out of reach - and while that remains the case, her life’s ambition is beyond her grasp. Before she and her family fled their home in Nasser, in South Sudan's Upper Nile State, Nyahok would watch, enthralled, as United Nations aircraft carrying aid supplies flew in and out of the nearby airport. “My dream has always been to be a pilot,” she says. “When I was young, I saw a lot planes flying around Nasser. I saw the pilots when they got out of the planes and their fancy uniforms. I want to see every country.” Hopes flicker of a place at secondary school Now a resident of Kule refugee camp in Gambella, Ethiopia, Nyahok, 16, knows that moving through secondary school is the only way of turning her dream into reality. But there is only limited provision for the first year of secondary school in the region; after that, hardly any refugee adolescents have a classroom to go to. The region is one of the least developed and remote states in Ethiopia -- and more refugees are arriving all the time. For Nyahok, hope briefly appeared in the form of her uncle, who lives in Kenya and who offered to pay her secondary school fees. With her parents’ full support, she left the camp and set off to Nairobi to pursue her studies. After only six months, however, her uncle ran out of money. “It soon became hard for him and he couldn’t pay the school fees anymore,” she says, staring at her feet as she sits on her bed, chatting with her father, Reath Kun. The South Sudan crisis has created the fastest-growing refugee population in the world. Of the more than 2 million people who have fled South Sudan, 62 per cent are under the age of 18. There are now almost 340,000 South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, classified as one of the world's least developed countries and therefore already struggling to educate its own people. The Ethiopian government has stated its intent to improve educational access at all levels for refugees and for its own people, but the obstacles are significant. Only 9 per cent of secondary school-age refugee children in Ethiopia have a place in a classroom, well below the 23 per cent rate for refugees globally and light years away from the 84 per cent figure for their non-refugee peers. ‘I would leave again if I had to’ That means that youngsters such as Nyahok simply run out of opportunities, no matter how much they have committed themselves at primary school. “I did not have the chance to go to school,” says her father. “I lived in a remote area in Nasser and there were no schools in the area. Nyahok, I want her to go to school. I am very proud of her, for her achievements in school and for her drive.” Berhanu Geneti, a UNHCR education officer in Gambella, says refugee children and adolescents are “eager to learn and make something of their lives”. But funding constraints, he adds, mean a shortage of classrooms, text books and teachers. Because Nyahok was unable to finish the past school year, she will now start grade 8. But despite her setback, she still has her eyes on the skies. “It would make me very sad if my dream of becoming a pilot could not come true.” That, she says, is how she can explore the world and take care of her family at the same time. And she also wants to beat a trail for South Sudanese girls like herself. “I want to be an advocate and a role model for them.” Right now, she says, “all I can think of is my education, finishing school. I would leave again if I had to, to get my education.”Publisher:UNHCR Communications and Public Information ServiceCredit Line:© UNHCRMultimedia Type:DocumentSize:2 pages (~0 MB)File type:pdf
