'I made it,' says South Sudanese who fled to Uganda
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[June 19, 2021]
KAMPALA (Reuters) - After civil war
forced Samuel Dhol Ayeun to flee South Sudan as a teenager to
neighbouring Uganda in 2013, memories of watching friends die of
preventable diseases due to inadequate medical care inspired his goal of
becoming a doctor.
Now 27, Ayeun has graduated from medical school and is busy attending to
COVID-19 and other patients at the prestigious Mulago National Referral
Hospital in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
"I made it," he told Reuters this week during his shift.
"Being a refugee, it's not a punishment," he said. "It is an opportunity
to continue with your dreams outside your country.”
Ayeun and his family are among an estimated one million South Sudanese
refugees who fled into Uganda after war broke out just two years after
Juba gained independence following decades of conflict with Khartoum.
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The East African country's refugee policy permits refugees free movement
and access to public services including education and healthcare.
A total of 1.5 million refugees live in Uganda, making it the
fourth-largest refugee-hosting nation in the world after Turkey,
Colombia and Pakistan, Wendy Kasujja, spokesperson for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uganda.
However, only 20% of South Sudanese refugees of secondary education age
in Uganda are currently in school due as there are too few places to
meet the demand, said Kasujja.
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![](../images/061921PIX/news_t71.jpg)
Samuel Dhol Ayeun, a trainee doctor who fled from South Sudan to
Uganda, poses for a photo at the Mulago National Specialised
Hospital in Kampala, Uganda June 17, 2021. Picture taken June 17,
2021. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa
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Ayeun was one of the lucky ones. He attended a public
high school, earning top marks and winning a scholarship from a
German organisation, Duffy, to attend Uganda's prestigious Makerere
University. He worked part-time as teacher to contribute to his
university fees, he said.
The first in his family to earn a university degree, he says he
hopes to specialize in neurosurgery and intends to go back to his
homeland and work as a lecturer.
"Considering where I’ve come from, my parents were really excited,"
he said, adding that his family travelled from the refugee
settlement where they live in northern Uganda to attend his
graduation.
(Reporting by Francis Mukasa, additional reporting by Nazanine
Moshiri in Nairobi; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Maggie
Fick and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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