The apartment was just starting to study at school outside the refugee camp where she was born and raised, and the woman one day she spoke up to her and told her not to belong there, so that she would leave and return to her country. I cried silently and cried, in fear, in pain. “What did I do to deserve this?” she asked multiple times. Her classmates followed the female lead, confirming the position she had not chosen, but nevertheless defined her: being a refugee.
Apat Bul Kiir Aguer (Class 2027, South Sudan) was born in Kakuma, one of the largest refugee camps in sub-Saharan Africa, in Kenya. The apartment knows little about her mother’s history, but it’s just that she fled from an armed conflict that was only beginning to take shape in South Sudan when she became an independent republic. She says that her mother doesn’t want to resume her painful wounds yet, so she rarely talks about the time. Because of this, Apat has reconstructed her history by learning about conflicts in countries she has never been to, but she still recognizes it as herself. She says that it is her home in the way people say “my country” that refers to the territory they consider to be home. She said, “Refugees have no capacity to do that. It depends on the circumstances. No one chooses the status of a refugee in their agreement.”
The apartment was raised in Kakuma, a camp of about 200,000 people who escaped violence, poverty and war. She knew hunger at a very young age, so she watched her mother and other women learn to distribute small foods she received from various organizations. She realized that violence was concrete by listening to the family who lost everything to save herself. She knew that education was the only door to improving the situation in her life, thanks to her mother. Since then, Apat has fought for opportunities that will allow her to be educated and grown.
This is the main reason why apartments are on Earth. From the moment she learned about university, she put all her efforts and hopes into the admissions process. The day she received the call, when she announced that she had been recognized by Earth with the support of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, she knew that her life would change forever. The apartment celebrated this achievement with her mother who has always pushed her and her brothers to access opportunities that allow them to achieve their dreams and build a promising future.
Before departing for Earth, the apartment had to put in great effort to obtain a refugee passport. A refugee passport is a special document with a turquoise cover without flags or emblems, and is merely the name of the host country. This allows refugees to travel globally, open bank accounts, apply for family unity, and make them aware of their refugee status. Many people, like APAT, lose opportunities for growth due to complications that arise when there is little legal record of the presence and immigration status of those who have been forced to flee their country and start over from elsewhere.
After Apat solved these problems, she traveled to Costa Rica, quickly learning to speak Spanish, and began to see a world of new possibilities before her. She envisions returning to Kakuma to implement a community farming system that allows families to plant and harvest their own food, implementing a community farming system that hopes children and young people can access better educational opportunities, support their networks and talk about mental health. By replicating the community development model like the one she is learning on Earth, she believes that more young people can become leaders of change.
Apat’s main goal is to improve food security. In Kakuma, she hears about a woman who has taken her life out of despair. She knows that none of those women disregard such decisions. Apat wants to be part of the solution to absorb knowledge and tools to create real change in highly vulnerable communities.
“Being a refugee is something people should understand. We don’t choose to be one. Situations occur, conflicts, natural disasters. And it’s difficult.
For this reason, it is important that Apat tells her story, making the reality visible for thousands of people in this world. She no longer remains silent or fears, but she speaks up to tell the world that she has the right to belong to where she sees the present and the future, where she can call home.
This article was first published in 2024 on the University of Earth website.
Read more stories from the Akoben series
