ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mary Maker - Teacher
Mary Maker believes in the power of education to build peace and rebuild lives.

Why you should listen

A refugee from South Sudan's civil war, Mary Maker found solace and hope through education. She has lived in Kakuma refugee camp for several years, where she worked as a school teacher to a class of 120 students. She is now student again, attending a scholarship program in Rwanda, putting her on a path to university.

More profile about the speaker
Mary Maker | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxKakumaCamp

Mary Maker: Why I fight for the education of refugee girls (like me)

Filmed:
1,354,417 views

After fleeing war-torn South Sudan as a child, Mary Maker found security and hope in the school at Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp. Now a teacher of young refugees herself, she sees education as an essential tool for rebuilding lives -- and empowering a generation of girls who are too often denied entrance into the classroom. "For the child of war, an education can turn their tears of loss into a passion for peace," Maker says.
- Teacher
Mary Maker believes in the power of education to build peace and rebuild lives. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
We do not choose where to be born.
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We do not choose who our parents are.
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But we do choose how we are going
to live our lives.
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I did not choose to be born
in South Sudan,
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a country rife with conflict.
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I did not choose my name --
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Nyiriak,
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which means "war."
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I've always rejected it
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and all the legacy it was born into.
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I choose to be called Mary.
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As a teacher, I've stood
in front of 120 students,
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so this stage does not intimidate me.
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My students come from war-torn countries.
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They're so different from each other,
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but they have one thing in common:
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they fled their homes
in order to stay alive.
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Some of them belong to parents
back home in South Sudan
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who are killing each other
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because they belong to a different tribe
or they have a different belief.
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Others come from other African countries
devastated by war.
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But when they enter my class,
they make friends,
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they walk home together,
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they do their homework together.
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There is no hatred allowed in my class.
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My story is like that
of so many other refugees.
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The war came when I was still a baby.
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And my father,
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who had been absent
in most of my early childhood,
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was doing what other men were doing:
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fighting for the country.
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He had two wives and many children.
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My mother was his second wife,
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married to him at the age of 16.
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This is simply because my mother
came from a poor background,
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and she had no choice.
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My father, on the other hand, was rich.
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He had many cows.
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Gunshots were the order of the day.
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My community was constantly under attack.
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Communities would fight each other
as they took water along the Nile.
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But that was not all.
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Planes would drop the spinning
and terrifying bombs
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that chopped off people's limbs.
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But the most terrifying thing
for every single parent
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was to see their children being abducted
and turned into young soldiers.
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My mother dug a trench
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that soon became our home.
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But yet, we did not feel protected.
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She had to flee in search
of a safe place for us.
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I was four years old,
and my younger sister was two.
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We joined a huge mass of people,
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and together we walked
for many agonizing days
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in search of a secure place.
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But we could barely rest
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before we were attacked again.
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I remember my mother was pregnant,
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when she would take turns
to carry me and my younger sister.
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We finally made it across
the Kenyan border, yes.
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But that was the longest journey
that I have ever had in my whole life.
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My feet were raw with blisters.
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To our surprise,
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we found other family members
who had fled into the camp earlier on,
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where you all are today,
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the Kakuma camp.
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Now, I want you all to be very quiet
just for a moment.
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Do you hear that?
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The sound of silence.
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No gunshots.
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Peace, at last.
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That was my first memory of this camp.
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When you move from a war zone
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and come to a secure place like Kakuma,
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you've really gone far.
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I only stayed in the camp
for three years, though.
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My father, who had been absent
in most of my early childhood,
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came back into my life.
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And he organized for me
to move with my uncle
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to our family in Nakuru.
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There, I found my father's first wife,
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my half sisters and my half brothers.
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I got enrolled in school.
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I remember my first day in school --
I could sing and laugh again --
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and my first set of school
uniforms, you bet.
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It was amazing.
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But then I came to realize
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that my uncle did not find it fit
for me to go to school,
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simply because I was a girl.
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My half brothers were his first priority.
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He would say, "Educating a girl
is a waste of time."
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And for that reason, I missed
many days of school,
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because the fees were not paid.
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My father stepped in
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and organized for me
to go to boarding school.
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I remember the faith that he put in me
over the couple of years to come.
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He would say, "Education is an animal
that you have to overcome.
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With an education, you can survive.
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Education shall be your first husband."
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And with these words came in
his first big investment.
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I felt lucky!
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But I was missing something:
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my mother.
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My mother had been left
behind in the camp,
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and I had not seen her since I left it.
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Six years without seeing her
was really long.
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I was alone,
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in school,
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when I heard of her death.
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I've seen many people back in South Sudan
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lose their lives.
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I've heard from neighbors
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lose their sons, their husbands,
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their children.
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But I never thought that that
would ever come into my life.
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A month earlier, my stepmother,
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who had been so good to me
back in Nakuru, died first.
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Then I came to realize that
after giving birth to four girls,
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my mother had finally
given birth to something
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that could have made her
be accepted into the community --
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a baby boy,
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my baby brother.
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But he, too,
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joined the list of the dead.
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The most hurting part for me
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was the fact that I wasn't able
to attend my mother's burial.
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I wasn't allowed.
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They said her family did not find it fit
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for her children, who are all girls,
to attend her burial,
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simply because we were girls.
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They would lament to me and say,
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"We are sorry, Mary, for your loss.
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We are sorry that your parents
never left behind any children."
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And I would wonder:
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What are we?
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Are we not children?
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In the mentality of my community,
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only the boy child counted.
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And for that reason,
I knew this was the end of me.
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But I was the eldest girl.
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I had to take care of my siblings.
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I had to ensure they went to school.
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I was 13 years old.
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How could I have made that happen?
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I came back to the camp
to take care of my siblings.
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I've never felt so stuck.
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But then, one of my aunts, Auntie Okoi,
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decided to take my sisters.
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My father sent me money from Juba
for me to go back to school.
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Boarding school was heaven,
but it was also so hard.
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I remember during the visiting days
when parents would come to school,
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and my father would miss.
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But when he did come,
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he repeated the same faith in me.
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This time he would say,
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"Mary, you cannot go astray,
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because you are the future
of your siblings."
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But then, in 2012,
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life took away the only thing
that I was clinging on.
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My father died.
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My grades in school started to collapse,
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and when I sat for my final
high school exams in 2015,
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I was devastated to receive a C grade.
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OK, I keep telling students in my class,
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"It's not about the A's;
it's about doing your best."
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That was not my best.
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I was determined.
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I wanted to go back and try again.
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But my parents were gone.
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I had no one to take care of me,
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and I had no one to pay that fee.
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I felt so hopeless.
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But then, one of my best friends,
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a beautiful Kenyan lady, Esther Kaecha,
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called me during this devastating moment,
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and she was like, "Mary,
you have a strong will.
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And I have a plan,
and it's going to work."
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OK, when you're in those devastating
moments, you accept anything, right?
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So the plan was, she organized
some travel money
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for us to travel to
Anester Victory Girls High School.
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I remember that day so well.
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It was raining when we entered
the principal's office.
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We were shaking like two chickens
that had been rained on,
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and we looked at him.
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He was asking, "What do you want?"
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And we looked at him with the cat face.
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"We just want to go back to school."
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Well, believe it or not,
he not only paid our school fees
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but also our uniform
and pocket money for food.
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Clap for him.
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(Applause)
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When I finished my high school career,
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I became the head girl.
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And when I sat for the KCSE
for a second time,
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I was able to receive a B minus. Clap.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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So I really want to say thank you
to Anester Victory, Mr. Gatimu
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and the whole Anester fraternity
for giving me that chance.
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From time to time,
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members of my family will insist
that my sister and I should get married
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so that somebody will take care of us.
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They will say,
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"We have a man for you."
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I really hate the fact that people
took us as property rather than children.
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Sometimes they will jokingly say,
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"You are going to lose your market value
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the more educated you become."
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But the truth is,
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an educated woman is feared
in my community.
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But I told them, this is not what I want.
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I don't want to get kids at 16
like my mother did.
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This is not my life.
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Even though my sisters
and I are suffering,
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there's no way we are
heading in that direction.
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I refuse to repeat history.
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Educating a girl will create
equal and stable societies.
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And educated refugees will be the hope
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of rebuilding their countries someday.
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Girls and women have
a part to play in this
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just as much as men.
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Well, we have men in my family
that encourage me to move on:
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my half brothers and also my half sisters.
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When I finished my high school career,
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I moved my sisters to Nairobi,
where they live with my stepsister.
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They live 17 people in a house.
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But don't pity us.
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The most important thing
is that they all get a decent education.
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The winners of today
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are the losers of yesterday,
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but who never gave up.
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And that is who we are,
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my sisters and I.
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And I'm so proud of that.
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My biggest investment in life --
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(Applause)
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is the education of my sisters.
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Education creates an equal and fair chance
for everyone to make it.
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I personally believe education
is not all about the syllabus.
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It's about friendship.
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It's about discovering our talents.
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It's about discovering our destiny.
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I will, for example, not forget
the joy that I had
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when I first had singing
lessons in school,
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which is still a passion of mine.
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But I wouldn't have gotten that
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anywhere else.
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As a teacher, I see
my classroom as a laboratory
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that not only generates
skills and knowledge
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but also understanding and hope.
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Let's take a tree.
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A tree may have its branches cut,
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but give it water, and it will
grow new branches.
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For the child of war,
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an education can turn their tears of loss
into a passion for peace.
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And for that reason, I refuse to give up
on a single student in my class.
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(Applause)
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Education heals.
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The school environment
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gives you a focus to focus ahead.
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Let's take it this way:
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when you're busy solving
mathematical equations,
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and you are memorizing poetry,
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you forget the violence
that you witnessed back home.
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And that is the power of education.
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It creates this place for peace.
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Kakuma is teeming with learners.
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Over 85,000 students
are enrolled in schools here,
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which makes up 40 percent
of the refugee population.
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It includes children who lost years
of education because of the war back home.
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And I want to ask you a question:
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If education is about
building a generation of hope,
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why are there 120 students
packed in my classroom?
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Why is it that only six percent
of the primary school students
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are making it to high school,
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simply because we do not have
enough places for them?
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And why is it that only one percent
of the secondary school graduates
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are making it to university?
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I began by saying that I am a teacher.
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But once again, I have become a student.
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In March, I moved to Rwanda
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on a scholarship program
called "Bridge2Rwanda."
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15:49
It prepares scholars for universities.
281
937503
2988
15:53
They are able to get a chance to compete
for universities abroad.
282
941173
4350
15:57
I am now having teachers
telling me what to do,
283
945961
2811
16:00
instead of the other way round.
284
948796
2049
16:02
People are once again investing in me.
285
950869
3638
16:07
So I want to ask you all
to invest in young refugees.
286
955587
4541
16:12
Think of the tree
that we mentioned earlier.
287
960818
2276
16:15
We are the generation to plant it,
288
963995
2664
16:19
so that the next generation can water it,
289
967422
3488
16:23
and the one that follows
will enjoy the shade.
290
971498
4096
16:28
They will reap the benefits.
291
976360
1882
16:31
And the greatest benefit of them all
292
979016
2441
16:34
is an education that will last.
293
982263
3219
16:38
Thank you.
294
986084
1230
16:39
(Applause)
295
987648
6103

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mary Maker - Teacher
Mary Maker believes in the power of education to build peace and rebuild lives.

Why you should listen

A refugee from South Sudan's civil war, Mary Maker found solace and hope through education. She has lived in Kakuma refugee camp for several years, where she worked as a school teacher to a class of 120 students. She is now student again, attending a scholarship program in Rwanda, putting her on a path to university.

More profile about the speaker
Mary Maker | Speaker | TED.com

Data provided by TED.

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