About Mary

South Sudanese refugee Mary Maker has been supporting UNHCR since 2018 and was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador in March 2023.  

After fleeing her war-torn country as a child, Mary found safety in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.  Mary overcame many challenges to graduate secondary school.  She then became a teacher of young refugees in her community while fighting for opportunities to further her own education.  Mary is currently studying Literature and Theatre as part of a scholarship programme at university in the United States.  She sees education as an essential tool for rebuilding lives and empowering a generation of refugee children – particularly girls - who are too often denied entrance into the classroom.  

Mary has said: "For the child of war, an education can turn their tears of loss into a passion for peace".

Recent support

In 2022 Mary wrote a first person piece in UNHCR’s annual flagship Education Report and both chaired and spoke at several events as part of the Transforming Education Summit at the UN General Assembly.  She was also the face of UNHCR’s World Refugee Day global TikTok challenge #WhatTheWorldNeeds.

In 2018, Mary gave an impassioned speech at TEDxKakumaCamp entitled ‘Why I fight for the education of refugee girls (like me)’.  Since then, in collaboration with UNHCR she has gone on to advocate on behalf of refugees across multiple global media platforms including Sky News, ABC News, the BBC and Al Jazeera.  Mary has also spoken at international events including Global GoalsCast and the Girl Up Summit and she has supported several UNHCR private sector partnerships.

Mary has fronted social media content, fundraising appeals, and briefings to UNHCR supporters outlining the importance of education, and highlighting, through her own personal story, the resilience, talents and ambitions of the forcibly displaced in playing an active role in the response to the global refugee crisis.