Discover the story of Kenyan Manyang Lual Jok, who left his country with just an envelope in his hand and saw his life transformed. Today, Manyang is graduate in Computer Science and Economics from McGill University in Canada.

Originally from South Sudan, Manyang fled her war-torn homeland when she was just 9 years old. He and his uncles were placed in Kakuma camp in northern Kenya, where Manyang lived from 2005 to 2017.

“4 years ago I left Kakuma refugee camp with nothing but God and my ‘go for it’ attitude. This little brown envelope in my hand. Leaving my family and friends behind and moving to a new country where I knew no one scared me.

The post inspired thousands of people and had over 160,000 likes and over 4,000 comments.

Education has transformed

The Kenyan completed his primary and secondary education in the refugee camp. It was then that he heard about the Student Refugee Program (SRP) offered by World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

Manyang was one of more than 200 students from Kakuma refugee camp who applied for the WUSC program. The process took six months, and due to limited internet access, he and other camp applicants were unable to check on the status of their respective applications.

During the final cut, 20 people were selected to attend a Canadian university, more than 5,000 km away. Manyang was playing basketball with friends when someone told him the good news that would change his life!

“The conditions on the ground were very difficult. We were counting on the The United Nations and other refugee agencies to provide our food each month, but it was barely enough. But because I was so young and had limited access to the internet or TV, I grew up thinking that was how the whole world lived.

graduation

On May 30, Manyang celebrated her graduation with a beautiful graduation ceremony. Although his family couldn’t attend the ceremony in person, they watched the three-hour live stream “just to see a glimpse of me graduating,” the student celebrated.

“I probably wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told me. Not because I couldn’t get a degree from a world-class university, but because that part of the world where anything is possible wasn’t open to me,” he said. “Thanks to WUSC and McGill, my world has changed.

Congratulations, Manyang!

With information from To fix