Shadia Mbabazi

"You need to be able to help yourself. "
Shadia Mbabazi ,22, was born in Rwanda and fled during the genocide in 1994. Her family traveled overland through Burundi and Congo and finally,in 200, to Botswana, where they have been living in a camp ever since. Her mother, who was Tutsi, died in 2004. She has two brothers. "(My Mum) was a very strong woman because she was always there for us, " she says. Shadia was determined to complete her studies. She won a competitive scholarship from DAFI, the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative, which is a UNHCR-administered, German-funded program that provides scholarships to deserving refugee children worldwide. After five years of study, Shadia earned a degree in Community Development through a distance learning program at UNISA, the largest university in South Africa. Other camp residents urged her to quit and get married but she persisted, she says, because "even if you get married your husband might die tomorrow, what are you going to do? Start baking? You need to be able to help yourself." For more information about refugees, visit: www.unhcr.org

• Category

  Nonprofits & Activism

[monkieslovecheese]

awww this is soooooooo sad! we are studing this in our social studies

[Natashsa Mujawase]

my heroes are not just the ones who died..she is one of them...exactly today, I celebrate you Mbabazi.

JazakAllah Khair!