In Senegal’s northern Fouta region, the United Nations is helping thousands of Mauritanian refugee children continue their education. There are many economic and cultural challenges to staying in school while one is a refugee.
It is late afternoon at the Ndioum refugee camp, 500 kilometers northeast of Dakar. A few dozen Mauritanians have gathered after prayer to discuss new income-generating activities with members of the UN Refugee Agency.
Sitting quietly among this group of elderly men and women is Oumar Alassane Ba, a tall, lanky 16-year-old who is sporting a Chelsea football jersey and basketball shorts. Oumar is a Senegalese-born, Mauritanian refugee. He is the top student at his community high school and was named best overall student in the region.
Oumar said education for him is very important, because even though he is a student today, in the future he will be a father. His own father had to drop out of school, because of poverty, and he does not want this to happen to his own children.
Oumar is part of a new generation of refugees - a group who were born, schooled and, in some fortunate cases, financially supported in Senegal’s French school system.
The first group of refugee students arrived in 1989 among more than 60,000 Mauritanians who fled to Senegal following ethnic clashes. Many students arrived with little hope of continuing their studies.