We have the chance for a good future

Fatima, 16, arrived in Doro refugee camp in June 2012 after travelling for many weeks from her home in Sudan with little food, water or shelter. She is currently living in a single tent with her parents and her four sisters.

“I was in grade 7 and about to go into grade 8 when I had to leave my village and had to run away. The journey here was very difficult. When the fighting started we ran out of the village and went to a place near the border for three months with little food or water or clothes and no one to help us.

“We didn’t know where we would be going and didn’t know what there would be once we got here. At this time the rains had just started and we didn’t have anywhere to sleep or any mats, but we were very tired and so just slept under the trees with no plastic sheeting to protect us from the rain.

“When we first came to this camp there was no school but then Save the Children opened a school which I joined last year. My favourite subjects are geography and Arabic language.

“In March this year I took the final exams. When I was sitting my exams I did not know how well I would do but I wanted to show people that the refugee school is good, so I worked hard and did well, and I am now in secondary school. When I go back home I want to be a doctor and will also encourage other children to go to school.

“Before Save the Children opened this school there was nowhere for children to go, but now all the children are coming here and even their mothers come here in the afternoons because they also want to learn like their daughters.

“If young girls are educated then the whole world is educated, so I always encourage girls in this camp to go to the schools. Life is difficult here but through school we have the chance for a good future.”