Justina dreams of reuniting
with her family.
She fled violence in Nigeria.
Justina Jonathan, 45 years old: “I was very afraid of the challenge of having my life far from the ones I love. Far from the dream of making girls into women with knowledge and power, capable of fighting for their rights and to define their future. I had to leave my home, my family and the school I was a teacher at to keep myself alive. I had to flee, but my family knows that a woman never abandons her children. I will find ways to be with them again, in a peaceful country that does not discriminate against different ways of thinking.”
Justina Jonathan is 45 years old, a former teacher, a mother of four, and a refugee in Brazil. Since she fled violence in Nigeria in 2014, she has been living apart from her family and working as a cleaner and hair dresser. Before all of this, she was a teacher at a school for boys and girls in northern Nigeria, where the terrorist group Boko Haram operates. As part of her classes, Justina taught her students about their rights, to think beyond their textbooks and fears.
Justina Jonathan, a 45-year-old Nigerian refugee, has been living in Brazil since 2014. She is separated from her children, her husband and her life as a teacher.© UNHCR/V. MORIYAMA
Nigerian refugee Justina was a teacher at a boys and girls school. The terrorist group Boko Haram has banned female education and kidnapped hundreds of children. Jonathan was forced to flee due to her profession and belief that girls should be educated.© UNHCR/V. MORIYAMA
Justina , a former teacher in Nigeria, now works as a cleaning lady and hairdresser in Brazil. She dreams of empowering Nigerian girls to fight for their rights and define their future. © UNHCR/V. MORIYAMA
Justina cleans the floor of a shop. She hopes to be a teacher again one day. © UNHCR/V. MORIYAMA
Justina has been in Brazil since 2014. She dreams of reuniting with her family somewhere they will not be persecuted because of religion, education or gender. © UNHCR/V. MORIYAMA
After the forced closure of her school, Justina continued teaching at a local church. She believes that, through education, the knowledge gained will lay the foundation for a better life and more equal society. Ultimately, the threats by Boko Haram became more frequent, forcing her to decide to either put herself and her family in danger or to flee, leaving her students, her children, her husband, and her life behind.
To date, the Boko Haram insurgency has internally displaced more than 2.2 million Nigerians and forced around 180,000 Nigerians to flee to other countries. Justina does not feel proud of leaving everything behind but knows it was necessary. She hopes to resume teaching and empowering students. She dreams of reuniting her family in a place without fear of persecution regarding education, religion or gender.
Written by Miguel Pachioni
Video by Victor Moriyama
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To date, the Boko Haram insurgency has internally displaced more than 2.2 million Nigerians and has caused around 180,000 Nigerians to flee their homes.
Justina now calls Brazil home along with nearly 9,000 recognized refugees from 79 different nationalities – including resettled refugees. The work of UNHCR in Brazil is governed by the same principles and functions as in any other country: to protect refugees and promote durable solutions. Working with the national government and civil society, UNHCR seeks to ensure humanitarian assistance and integration of refugees.
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