Draft:Nhial Deng

Nhial Deng (born January 20th, 1999) is a Canada-based South Sudanese refugee, storyteller, youth advocate, and community activist. He spent 11 years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and now attends Huron University in Canada.

As a youth leader and community activist in Kakuma, Nhial initiated mutliple projects to help young people in the camp build better futures such as the Refugee Youth Peace Ambassadors and SheLeads Kakuma. He is passionate about the role of education, mentorship, and social entrepreneurship as powerful tools for young people to build better futures and communities.

In 2021, Nhial was awarded a full-ride scholarship to Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, where he is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Global Studies and Digital Communications. He now lives in London, Ontario, Canada.

Nhial's writings have been published by Al Jazeera and CNN, and he has appeared for interviews on CNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, ITV, BBC, and KTN News, among others. He has also been featured on YouthCan by Lizz Ntonjira, Game Changer by Koen Timmers, and Unfolding Peace by Kawtar El Alaoui.

In recognition of his community work and advocacy efforts, Nhial has received numerous accolades, including the World Vision Hero for Children: Courage Award 2023, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Award, and, most recently, the prestigious $100,000 Global Student Prize 2023.

Early Life
Nhial's father fled the first Sudanese Civil War and settled in Itang, Ethiopia where Nhial was born in 1999. He learned about his country of origin; South Sudan through his father's radio and storytelling. His father work multiple jobs in Itang in order to send him to a good school while also supporting his mother and siblings who live in a nearby village.

His first language is Nuer and he self-taught himself English by listening to BBC World Service. By listening to the radio and reading at a young age, Nhial learned about the world outside his village and questioned why it was unjust to his father who had to flee war on several occasions. He also dreamed of becoming a journalist and speaking on BBC World Service.

Following an armed attack on his village in 2010, his father sent him to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya at age 11 alongside a group of women and children fleeing the attack.

Adult life and activism
In Kakuma, Nhial was assigned a foster family to take care of him because he arrived in the refugee camp as an unaccompanied minor. His life took a turn when he resumed school in the refugee camp where he was able to find a safe place to heal and think about a bright future again.

In 2017, Nhial founded the Refugee Youth Peace Ambassadors, a refugee-led, youth-led initiative to create a safe space for young people in the camp to heal from their trauma, play together, promote peace among different communities, and develop innovative solutions for challenges faced by their communities. By the end of 2021, RYPA empowered over 6,000 young people in Kakuma through peacebuilding programming, mentorship sessions, social entrepreneurship workshops, community peace dialogues, and game and sports activities.

To tell the stories of his community which he felt were told through the eyes of external observers, Nhial started a journalism club at his school in Kakuma and social media channels on Twitter and Instagram where he posts about human rights, challenges facing refugees, and the stories of people in Kakuma.

After graduating from high school, Nhial enrolled in the FilmAid Kenya’s Media Entrepreneurship Training Program, a 10-month course funded by the US State Department and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In October 2021, he was awarded the inaugural FilmAid Student Award for his community and advocacy work at the FilmAid Annual 2021 Benefit in New York City, USA.

In 2019, Nhial was selected as a Global Changemaker for his community work and advocacy for refugees and invited to attend the Global Youth Summit in Zurich, Switzerland. His application for a Schengen short-stay visa was refused by the Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi, Kenya and he could not attend the conference.

In 2020, Nhial was selected as a ONE Campaign Champion for East Africa and also admitted into the Women Deliver Young Leader Program, a 3-year fellowship for young leaders passionate about gender equality. Through the World Deliver Young Leaders Program, Nhial set up SheLeads Kakuma in December 2021, a leadership and advocacy program for young girls and women in the Kakuma refugee camp.

In March 2021, Nhial was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley for the fall 2021 semester but couldn't attend Berkeley due to insufficient financial aid. A group of pro-bono college counsellors from the US and Singapore helped him secure a full-ride four-year scholarship to Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada where is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Global Affairs and Digital Communications.

Besides his studies, Nhial is actively advocating for refugees, peace, feminism, and meaningful engagement of young people in decision-making. In the summer of 2022, he spoke at 11 conferences in 7 countries where he shared stages with world leaders discussing solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our time. During his trip to the UK in early September to attend the One Young World 2022 summit, Nhial participated in a roundtable discussion with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on inclusion and gender equality. After his trip to the UK, he travelled to New York to speak at the United Nations Transforming Education Summit where he advocated for refugee education, gender transformative education, and meaningful engagement of young people in global education decision-making tables.

Selected publications

 * Feature story School was a safe place: How education helped Nhial realize a dream, United Nations, 2022
 * Press release Canada champions education and youth voices at the UN Transforming Education Pre-Summit at UNESCO in Paris, Government of Canada, 2022
 * Op-ed Not only Ukrainians, but all refugees deserve compassion, Al Jazeera, 2022
 * Op-ed Refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab camps are still in limbo, Al Jazeera, 2022
 * United Nations' Youth Envoy, Meet 10 leaders who can inspire you to change the world (7th Edition), United Nations, 2020
 * Essay Kiron AmplifyNow Q&A with Nhial Deng, Kiron Open Higher Education, 2020