The sun is setting on the horizon, casting a soft orange light on the trees lining the compound of Lokopio Primary School in Bidibidi refugee settlement, Northern Uganda.
Children stream out of one particular classroom. Their school mates left one and a half hours ago but the Primary Seven class, which is preparing for their Primary Leaving Examinations, stayed on for revision, just like they have done every day for the past few months.
Clutching her books, 18-year-old Susan Sadia, a refugee from South Sudan, readies herself for the long walk home, a journey that will take her about 40 minutes.
“I am reading hard so I can become a midwife,” she says. “I want to help the pregnant women suffering in the settlement, especially those who did not come to Uganda with their husbands.”

Sadia knows only too well the suffering that refugee women endure. In 2016, she fled fighting in South Sudan with her aunt, cousins and siblings. The journey to safety in Uganda, on foot, across four rivers, some of which did not have bridges, took three days from their home in Yei. Besides the few belongings balancing on her head, Sadia had to carry her three-year-old brother on her back. Her mother had refused to leave South Sudan.

Although she had been in school in South Sudan, in 2017 Sadia did not attend school in Uganda. Bidibidi, where she stays, is the largest refugee settlement in the country, hosting about 272,000 refugees, mainly from South Sudan.

As with all other services, refugees have to share education facilities with the Ugandan nationals. Uganda recently launched an Education Response Plan for Refugees and Host Communities, against a backdrop of inadequate education services for children in those communities.
According to the Plan, the number of children in refugee settlements far overrides the available schools, teachers and learning materials. In Bidibidi settlement, for instance, the pupil teacher ratio is 94:1, compared to a national average of 43:1.  

Sadia’s fate took a turn for the better in 2018. With funding from the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, Save the Children, an NGO, started the Accelerated Learning Programme. This is a catch-up programme that uses a compressed curriculum, over three years, to enable children who had dropped out of school to re-enroll. It is run within existing primary schools.

Sadia is on the final year and has the opportunity to do the Uganda Primary Leaving Examinations which, she hopes, will be her ticket to secondary school and ultimately her dream of becoming a midwife.

“I have seen pregnant women deliver from home because there is no one to help them. No husband to take them to the health centre,” she says. “When I become a midwife I will educate women on the need to go to a health centre to give birth, because that is where you find doctors and midwives who can help.”

Sadia’s optimism belies the challenges she faces in the pursuit of her dream. The school does not offer meals for children, so those who stay nearby go home for lunch. “My home is far – I cannot afford to make the journey, so I only eat in the evening,” she says.

Sometimes Sadia misses school because she has to take care of the home when her aunt, who sells food in the market, travels to stock up for her stall. She makes up for lost time by revising at night, efforts that are sometimes hampered by the lack of electricity in the settlement. The family’s solar lamp is now worn out and operates intermittently.

But she is determined to pass her examinations, drawing inspiration from her family.
“My parents did not go to school, so I want to be different. If I get a good education I will be able to help my family,” she says.

With this determination, the women of Bidibidi, and later South Sudan, will be fortunate to get such a passionate midwife.