Seka Blaise

In a world where knowledge and skills flow freely like a river, educational opportunities play hide and seek, leaving in the shadows with uncertainty. Most of these discrepancies in opportunities are caused by forced migration and financial constraints. I am an internally displaced student in Yaoundé due to the Anglophone crisis which has been plaguing the English-speaking regions of Cameroon since 2016. According to ReliefWeb this crisis has claimed more than 4000 lives and caused the displacement of over 437,000 Cameroonians, 

As a victim of the crisis, I fled my hometown to attend high school in the city at 16 leaving my 4 siblings behind since my parents could not afford our education for all my family in the city. Post my high school graduation, the anglophone crisis intensified in my hometown forcing my entire family to follow me to Yaounde in search of shelter and security. I was unable to continue my education in college after high school because my family of seven which previously lived in a comfortable home was now sandwiched in a one-room house due to financial constraints. 

Hence, I dropped out of school and started part-time jobs at construction sites to support my parents, pay for our accommodation, and sponsor the education of my four siblings who have been out of school for four years without formal education. I also learned to repair electronics at Wizbrown Telecom to raise more revenue for my family.

Positively driven by my personal experience, I carry a burning motivation to explore the problems of limited access to education, energy poverty, and hunger, faced by displaced minorities. To reach out to these minorities in my community, I started volunteering at Open Dreams in December 2020, an NGO that equalizes educational opportunities for high-achieving, low-income students in Cameroon. Additionally, I founded a youth-led organization known as DeWise Foundation to support the social and economic empowerment of displaced populations where we have reached out to hundreds of IDPs.

Have I done enough to satisfy my passion for migrant rights and empowerment? Absolutely not!! I have not yet heard the stories of the other 437,000 IDPs, going through similar experiences as my family, nor have I led a diplomatic mission to a conflict zone to promote peace and access to education. I have yet to celebrate the golden jubilee of the DeWise Foundation and Open Dreams who are making strides to reduce inequalities in educational opportunities.