My refugee experience started in 1991 in Liberia, when the war came to my country, Sierra Leone, after I had just gone through my ‘0’ level exams in 1990. I was so frustrated thinking about my background; I came from a poor family and my parents struggled hard to educate me through Secondary School. I am the only child that went to school in my family and the last born. Besides that, I am the only female that had gone through High School/College in me village Taninahun Town in the Pujehen District, Southern Region.
While in Liberia I struggled a lot because there was fighting in this country too. During the early experience of my refugee life, I was not fortunate to have a scholarship, but I was hopeful. There was a Sierra Leonean who had a Secretarial School in Monrovia who gave me a scholarship in her school to study Secretarial Science for three years. I started attending in 1995, but in 1996 a war broke out in Monrovia so the woman had to leave the country, which was unfortunate on my part. But with all those trials, I did not give up. I lived in Somukai Refugee Camp at Upper Coldwell and in 1998 got a job in the Refugee School as Registrar and Secretary. In the year 2000, there was a memorandum from UNHCR to the four various Refugee camps in Monrovia indicating vacancies for sixteen “DAFI Scholarships” and females were more encouraged to apply. Since I was hoping to go to College I wasted no time to apply. The applicants were more than four hundred and an aptitude test was given. I was successful and also with the interview at UNHCR, Monrovia, Liberia. In the year 2001, my sponsorship started and continued until 2002 when fighting in Liberia intensified at the time that there was peace in Sierra Leone. With all theses developments in Sierra Leone I came back home. I came to UNHCR in Freetown and explained my plight, that after eleven years in refugee camps, my old parents were not able to send me to college. The UNHCR Education Officer found out from UNHCR-Liberia that indeed I had been a beneficiary of the DAFI Programme, and I was told that my sponsorship would continue here in Freetown.
I have become one of the role models especially in my village. I am always encouraging the parents to send their children to school and to be ambitious, for I alone can not develop our town. There are positive reactions, and examples are always set on me in terms of achievement. I have the confidence that a brighter future is ahead of me.
I also want you to know that there are constraints now towards my programme in Sierra Leone, for the certain facilities offered to me might not sustain me to go Hokie Turay is a young Sierra Leonian woman who fled to Liberia during the civil war in her home country. In Liberia she became a DAFI student. When civil strife struck Liberia again, she returned to Sierra Leone and continued her DAFI scholarship in her home country as a returnee. Her case, as below, demonstrates that educated females have a much higher benefit to the development of society – as a role model in her village where she promotes education.
through the programme successfully. I have two of my sister’s children who were staying with me while in the refugee camp. They are still here with me and they are under my umbrella because their father was killed during the war, and their mother is in no position to ever render aid to them. They are ambitious in life, and as girls I can not afford to leave them undone. The first girl child is now in SSII while the second will be taken her selective entrance to senior secondary school. The allowance that is given to me in Sierra Leone is 40% of the allowance I was receiving in Liberia, and this includes housing, book allowance, transportation, clothing and feeding allowance. I have found out that it is really strenuous especially because we are just out of war, Freetown is very expensive and f. ex. there is no medication facilities given to us and we are paying additional study fees. On my part, it is a burden for I have absolutely nobody to render help to me. With all these numerous problems stated above, I am really appealing to you to please use your good office and look into it and please do some amendment where necessary, for I don’t want to be a drop-out and I know I will
overcome the struggles and complete my education. I would like to give a testimony at the end of my programme.
In conclusion, I am thankful to the DAFI PROGRAMME and UNHCR for implementing it. Without this programme I would not have continued my education and I will always remain to appreciate your effort for rendering such assistance to me at this crucial time.
Freetown March 10, 2003
Hokie Turay
