Going to school helps refugee children in Mahama keep their dreams alive

On a sunny Monday afternoon, Patrick Abayo, 10, arrives home from Paysannat school near Mahama Refugee camp. He drops his notebooks near the door and quickly takes out his exercise books to show his mother what he learned in class.

Born in Mahama Refugee Camp, Patrick is now in Primary 4 and is keen to learn new things every day.

“Going to school helps me learn how to write and gain knowledge,” he says, adding that mathematics is his favourite subject in class.

He says he’s very committed to studying hard and dreams of “becoming a medical doctor” one day.

Patrick is one of over 26,000 refugee children across Rwanda’s refugee camps who were supported to access primary education in 2025.

Thanks to generous support from donors, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, provides refugee children like him with uniforms and other scholastic materials including exercise books, pens, pencils, erasers, and rulers. This assistance enables refugee learners like Patrick to pursue their education in national schools alongside their Rwandan peers.

Isabelle Mukankuranga, Patrick’s mother, says this support helps them a lot because they don’t have enough money to buy these school materials on their own. The mother of four – all of them studying in primary school in Mahama – mentions that it would be difficult for her to provide school materials for them without this support.

“The money [cash assistance] we get is very little; it’s not even enough to buy food. So how can we use that little money to buy school materials when we don’t have enough to eat?” she points out.

Isabelle also notes that when her children get uniforms, pens and notebooks, they seem motivated to go to school. She for instance says that when her son, Patrick, has all school materials he needs, he never misses school, but when he doesn’t have them, he is afraid to go to school.

At a time of when humanitarian funding is shrinking, children like Patrick need sustained support to stay in school and keep their dreams alive. Many refugee families are already struggling to meet even their most basic needs, and school expenses are beyond what they can afford on their own.

“I would like to thank everyone who supports our children to go to school and encourage them to continue doing so, because when a child has a clean uniform and notebooks, they go to school happily,” Isabelle says. “It also helps ease financial burden on us parents.”