An Interview with Alphonsina

’How you can come up with a business, how you are going to undertake that business, how are you going to make that business improve,’’ Alphonsina (22 years old) names as some of the takeaways from her participation in Sky School’s pilot course. The course, ‘Social Entrepreneurship - How to become a Changemaker’ focussed on the ways in which young refugee learners can identify problems in their communities and access their own skills and available resources to create initiatives that will positively impact their surroundings.

Alphonsina, originally from the DRC but now living in Kakuma Camp, Kenya, has been unable to continue her education since becoming a refugee. As of January 2018, Kakuma Camp had nearly 150,000 residents. Despite a relatively high primary school enrollment of 65%, only 3% of Kakuma Camp’s adolescent inhabitants are enrolled in secondary school. Determined to seek out alternative opportunities to further her education, Alphonsina discovered Sky School. Touching on the value of participating in the course, she says ‘’I am now able to seek out the opportunity in the community.’’

An important component of the social entrepreneurship course was the projects that students designed. All students were asked to think about problems that exist within their local communities, and what kind of action they could undertake to tackle them. In the interview, Alphonsina passionately explains that her project aims to address the severe lack of qualified teachers in the camp, leading to poor grades and subsequently making it difficult for students to continue their education outside of the camp. Sky School wants to make secondary education accessible to refugee youth like Alphonsina across the world. Asking her what she thinks Sky School should aim for in the future, she says: ‘’Go further, so that we can acquire more knowledge. This is not enough.’’ Watch the rest of the interview below to hear more about Alphonsina’s experiences as a young refugee, and the vision that she has for Sky School, below: