From grass to grace
- Scholarships
In 2009, the International Rescue Committee in partnership with the University of Nairobi in Kenya launched the world’s first Master's degree program focused on education in humanitarian emergencies. The program trains educators and administrators to engage with young people whose lives have been disrupted by violent conflict or natural disasters.
Ador Riak Nyiel was one boys in South Sudan who were orphaned or displaced during the civil war that devastated the country from 1983 to 2005.
Government troops and government-sponsored militias systematically attacked villages in Southern Sudan, and during the long subsequent upheaval where he lost both parents. He survived by living on the streets until the age of 13, he was recruited by the South Sudanese Liberation Army. After three years he managed to escape.
“There was a huge group of us,” he remembers. “We walked for weeks—starving,thirsty and exhausted. We were finally picked up by the UNHCR (United Nations refugee agency), crowded into the back of a truck, and taken to Kakuma refugee camp.”
After adjusting to Kakuma, he decided to begin his education, despite having never gone to school. “Coming from the bush as a soldier and trying to fit in was hard,” he says. ‘Everything was new. I was a tall 19-year-old sitting in the back of the classroom with students much younger and smaller.”
The classroom was packed with 95 students and led by recent high-school graduates of the same school. “Even if you could hear, you couldn’t participate,” says Ador. “Those of us keen to learn studied after school, reading as much as we could, trying to catch up.” With determination and perseverance, Ador managed to complete his primary school certificate. He was 21 years old and had finally found his calling in life—to help others improve their lives and their country through education.
Teacher Ador Riak Nyiel is enrolled in a pioneering IRC/University of Nairobi graduate program focused on improving education for young refugees.
Remaining in the camp, Ador enrolled in high school, taking as many workshops offered by the U.N. and aid agencies as he could. By the time he left Kakuma, he had 27 training certificates, many from the IRC. Ador excelled in special-needs education and became a sign language interpreter, and by 2005 he began to work full-time with the IRC teaching sign language. Soon he was head of IRC’s special needs education department.
In 2007, an American visitor to the camp offered to pay for Ador’s university education, and he was able to leave Kakuma to study at Daystar University in Nairobi. After earning his degree in 2010, Ador returned to South Sudan and is now a teacher and school administrator at Malek Academy which is a private secondary school.
“So many people cannot access education,” he laments. “And the education that is available isn’t adequate or relevant.
Now 32, Ador explains why he enrolled in the University of Nairobi graduate program: “Education has been a healing part of my life and brought me to where I am today. My dream is to improving education for refugees. And I want to give back honor to the many people that helped me. It’s that
simple.”
Reference:
International Rescue Committee