Itās only $1.50, but to Thein Gi Shwe from Burma and Yong Jacob Deng from Sudan, it means everything.
Every year, full-time Dalhousie students contribute $1.50 through their student fees to WUSC Dalhousieās student refugee program. With the money, WUSC supports two students at pilipiliĀž», taking care of tuition, housing, books and monthly allowance. WUSC volunteers meet the newcomers at the airport, help them settle in residence and give them a tour of Halifax and Dalhousie.
āEvery day I am learning,ā says Mr. Deng, who arrived in Halifax last August after living for eight years in a crowded refugee camp in Kenya.
Now heās in his first year at pilipiliĀž», studying civil engineering and working part-time at the Killam Library. His freedom is hard to get used to: āI keep expecting the authorities to stop me and ask me, Why are you here? Where is your visa?
āWhen I was in Kenya I could not figure out what life would be like ā¦ I could not imagine how friendly and helpful people would be (when I got here). I didnāt know anything: how to do my banking, how to work a computer when many of my assignments were online. My friends, my classmates ā they do a lot. They donāt even run away when I need help.ā
At āCamp to Campus,ā a WUSC-sponsored event last month, Mr. Deng conveyed his thanks: āI greatly appreciate what Canada, Dalhousie and all of you present here have done for me.ā
At 22 years of age, heās been through so much. As a small boy, he and his mother and grandmother fled violence in their home village in the Jonglei region of Sudan and escaped to Equatoria in the extreme south. Mr. Deng found himself terrified and alone at the age of 14 when soldiers took his mother away. He was sent to Kakuma, a large refugee camp in northern Kenya thatās home to more than 70,000 people from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Malnutrition, communicable diseases and malaria are just some of the problems plaguing refugees in the dusty camp. Through his teen-age years, Mr. Deng survived on little more than beans, maize and a keen desire to learn. His marks from elementary school were very good and he was awarded a scholarship by the Jesuit Refugee Service to attend high school.
āI didnāt have any other source of hope, of comfort,ā explains Mr. Deng, who found out just months ago that his mother is still alive and living in Sudan. āI thought I was done. I could not see the future. My only source of consolation was to try and study. When I did well, I got attention and people were willing to help me. And I offered what I could too. I worked as a volunteer to teach the younger children.ā
WUSC works with overseas partners in refugee camps in Africa and Asia to identify suitable students like Mr. Deng to come to Canada. For the past three decades, WUSCās student refugee program has enabled more than 900 men and women to resettle in Canada as permanent residents and pursue their education.
In July of each year, the Dalhousie chapter receives word of the two new students who are coming and begins preparing their welcome. While the student refugee program is the WUSCās main focus, the organization also works to heighten awareness of the issues refugees face around the world and offers university students volunteer learning opportunities in developing countries.Ā
Julia Keech, studying international development at pilipiliĀž», has been a WUSC volunteer for the past three years. Her involvement brings her studies alive.
āBeing in IDS, I hear people complain that they feel discouraged about the state of the world, that they feel small and helpless,ā says Ms. Keech, from Grand Pre in Nova Scotiaās Annapolis Valley.
āBut I have an opposite feeling about that. I feel this program is at the heart of international development studies. Itās so hands-on, and I know this sounds corny, but you really are making a difference in someone elseās life.ā