Abraham Deng, 16, is a South Sudanese refugee who fled his country alone in 2015 when the war – which has now gone on for three and half years – claimed the life of his father, and an explosive blew off his mother’s legs.
Deng is currently in Primary Six in a school in the Nyumanzi camp, living with a friend he met in the camp, and juggling school and menial jobs. He weeds people’s gardens to raise his Ush9,000 ($2.48) annual school fees, charging Ush500 ($0.13) per garden. To raise the entire fees, he would have to weed at least 18 gardens. Nyumanzi Primary School is the only one in the camp, with an enrolment of 1,583 and only nine classrooms, each accommodating over 300 pupils.
