Turkey offers scholarships to refugees in South Sudan

JUBA – Turkey is set to start offering university scholarships to refugees seeking refuge in South Sudan, Erdem Mutaf, Turkish Ambassador to Juba announced on Thursday.

Erdem said the five-year scholarships will cover travel expenses, university fees, boarding, and accommodations.

“We decided to allocate for refugee children in South Sudan, it will be the first for scholarship refugee in south Sudan, Turkish people are trying to give them the best, we know very well what it means to be refugee,” Erdem told reporters on Thursday.

Erdem said the students have started pre-entry exams which aim at determining their eligibility for Turkish scholarships, adding that successful winners will be announced in July or early in August.

“We are having a quota of South Sudanese students, this refugee quota will be in addition, the ultimate aim to help refugees to understand their condition, living standard give them chance to educate themselves.”

Lt. Gen. Bol Akot, Commissioner for South Sudan Refugee Affairs thanked the Turkish government for offering university scholarships to refugees children in South Sudan.

“This is the first time to have children of refugees going abroad for higher education,  and this not from us, it is from him the ambassador with the representative of UNCHR,” Akot said.

“The commission which was created after 2011 is starting to make relationships with other countries who are hosting refugees, and we have been asking that refugees in South Sudan who have taken elementary education to go higher education.”

Arafat Jamal, UN Refugee Agency Country Representative in the South said globally, only three percent of refugees have received a university education.

“I am particularly happy because refugees throughout the world and many of them are not able to get an education. Only 50 percent of refugees globally are able to receive education up to primary level and by the time they get to university only three percent of refugees receive a university education,” Jamal said.

In 2021, about 140 South Sudanese students have been granted scholarships so far.

In the 2019-2020 academic years, 26 students received a scholarship.