How education is reviving dreams of a Sudanese refugee in Rwanda

Abubaker Abdalla’s life was turned upside down in 2023 when intense fighting reached his hometown of Aldalling in Sudan’s South Kordofan. He was a university student, chasing his childhood dream to become a public health professional, before the war disrupted everything.

“Leaving behind 23 years of your life, and three years of studies, leaving family, friends, leaving everything behind was a tough decision,” Aboubaker recalls. “But we didn't have the luxury of choice. So you either go and try to save what can be saved, or you just sit and wait for the unknown.”

At first, Abubaker and his family fled the fighting and moved to relatively safer cities, hoping to return home once stability was restored. But as the war kept spreading, it forced them into repeated displacement.

He ended up separating from the rest of his family.

“I decided that I had to go and save what I could from my future, because everything was dark and uncertain. We didn’t know what was going to happen. The war was everywhere, and the uncertainty was all around,” he recounts.

That marked the beginning of a long journey for Abubaker in search of safety.

From Sudan and now in Rwanda, the Sudanese refugee, aged 25 now, first settled in Kigali in November 2023 and later in Mahama Refugee Camp for a short period. Even then, one uncertainty remained – how he would find his way back to his childhood dream and continue his education.

Despite this difficult situation, Abubaker never gave up and started applying for admissions to universities in Rwanda, though he knew he would face financial constraints if he could secure an admission.

“It was a life-changing moment because there were a lot of uncertainties. I kept asking myself: What if I get accepted? What if I don't get accepted? What is the other plan? At that moment, I didn't have a ready Plan B for if I got rejected,” he points out. “So, I was just hoping and praying to be one of these admittees, and thank God I was one of them. It was full of emotions.”

Ultimately, he used the admission from University of Rwanda to secure an Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) scholarship, which was made possible thanks to financial support from Mastercard Foundation. He had to start from scratch and he’s currently in year two at the university’s School of Public Health, doing environmental health sciences, the same subjects he was studying back home in Sudan.

“It's a life-changing moment. The moment after I received the email [about the scholarship offer], I just went to put down my mat and started to pray,” he says. “I'm just very thankful and grateful that finally I got an opportunity to pursue my studies.”

Now that his dream of a career in public health has been revived, his plans are clear: study hard, rebuild his life, and support his family.

But most importantly, he’s passionate about making a significant impact in the community using public health knowledge.

“There are a lot of gaps and need for public health officers in communities. I even aspire to work at a global level and make an impact on a large scale,” he says.

Even as Abubaker hopes for a better future, the harsh reality back home still haunts him: some of his friends were killed during the ongoing war, others did not get a chance to continue their studies while some of them are just trying to find a way for living.

“It's disastrous,” he says. “Actually, the whole generation of people at my age in Sudan, they are suffering... I really encourage anyone who can support to bring back life to those people who have been deprived of studies, even from basic life necessities. But education is paramount. If you can provide them a seat in university, you will be serving them a lot.”