Screams of joy invaded the room. Aiwon Marie Gbatu, 19, could not believe the news she had just received; she was finally granted the scholarship she had wished for, making it possible for her to go the university and make her dreams of becoming a doctor true. Aiwon, who begins her programme studying biology and chemistry, is one of the 15 refugees in Liberia who can attend tertiary education thanks to the DAFI Scholarship. “I heard about it last year when I was graduating from high school. But the first time I applied I did not get it. I was hoping to be successful this time,” Aiwon says with a smile and shine in her eyes.

Since she was a child, Aiwon has always considered education to be the most important thing in her life, especially in today’s society. “If you are not educated you are nobody. If you are educated people won’t look down on you and you will also be like a hero because you will be able to help other people,” she highlights. “Now it’s not the time to be in the kitchen, to be at home; it’s time for us to be in the field, to give our contribution to the society,” Aiwon adds.

Aiwon has been a refugee all her life. As a small baby, she and her mother were forced to flee their hometown of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when the war started there; this family of two found safety in Cote d’Ivoire. And like many children forced to flee from their homes, Aiwon grew up in a refugee camp. “When we were in Ivory Coast it was like being a stranger in another man’s country. We were living in the tents with other refugees and UNHCR used to give us food, clothes, toys; there was [a] great help for us. They were like a mother giving help, paying for our school fees, helping us when we were sick. I think we were there for about 10-15 years. I basically grew up there,” Aiwon remembers.

Her life as a refugee, however, did not stop there. Once again, Aiwon and her mother had to leave everything behind, her school, her friends, and flee from the post electoral violence in Cote d’Ivoire in 2011. “We had to leave because the situation was getting worse. You know it’s not easy to live in fear, when you know you are not secure. War time is like you are vulnerable to them. They started raping and killing and doing a lot of stuff. It was very traumatising. And we could not bear it because we lived it before, even though I was small but we just couldn’t live like that again.”

Aiwon, only 14 years old at that time, remembers how she and her mother decided to leave and had to walk for a long distance to get away from the violence. “We left with some other people. It was so fearful. On the main road you would see families, women, and men throwing their beds on their heads, walking with no destination. They actually did not know where they were going but they were just walking like some kind of crazy people,” she adds.

“We walked, and walked and walked. And we found ourselves here, in Liberia,” she says adding how they immediately started asking for the UNHCR office. And soon, after reaching Mamba Point, they were registered as refugees once again. Having to re-start again, Aiwon and her mother moved to a small place in a Church in Monrovia where they have been living since they arrived.

In spite of her situation, Aiwon has not let anything bring her down, and maintaining her spirit and good attitude, she has prioritised her education. “Even at the refugee camp in Ivory Coast, I was really competitive; I always wanted to be first. It was very encouraging in the way the teachers were pushing you through, giving a lot of assignments; no time to play. You had to be focused. As a young girl I have to be educated.”

Today, Aiwon dreams about becoming a doctor, and being able to contribute to society by studying the diseases and bacteria that have and still take many lives in Africa. “Africa is the most affected by most of the diseases like Ebola, cholera, and many sicknesses are around and most of us should study them. If we are here we would be able to identify all those sicknesses that are affecting our population. So we can come together, unite and bring some solution to our problems and not only depend on other people to help us. We need to try to be independent,” says the strong-willed Aiwon.

10 years from now she pictures herself as a creative woman who will bring her contribution to science; she dreams about helping people by building hospitals and clinics in areas deep in the field where they do not have quick access to medical care and facilities. “Having a centre where I can help young people who are disabled and who do not have a hand. Help them, give them hope that they will be able to hold on and build their dream,” she says.

Aiwon is one of the refugees in Liberia who was granted the DAFI Scholarship. Since 1992, the German government has funded the annual Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) to support tertiary education for deserving refugees worldwide. The programme grants scholarships to refugees at universities, colleges and polytechnics in their host countries. “Thank you because it’s not everywhere people get this kind of opportunities,” she says to the DAFI programme.

UNHCR and its partner SEARCH strive to provide the opportunity of tertiary education to refugees through the DAFI Scholarships, providing them assistance in the registration process, counselling and career management, as well as in allocating internship slots for them to gain work experience.

With a bright smile on her face, Aiwon sends a message to all refugee girls in the world: to persevere, to think positive and follow your dreams. “They should be very serious with their education because that will be the gate to their success. With hope, in any way that they can help, whether it is in their community in the church, they should try to give their help to the society because the world needs us.”

By: Diana Diaz Rodriguez in Monrovia, Liberia.