A Yearning for Knowledge Beyond Borders
- starsrefugeeorg
- Mar 15
- 3 min read
Education is a vital aspect of life; it helps open the doors of opportunity and is the key to wisdom. Education is more than just academic knowledge; it develops skills essential to daily living, and through education, one develops judgment and reasoning as well as learns how to discern right from wrong. Education is a fundamental human right recognized under international law, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, education remains a privilege for many.
Education is one of the first things lost when people are forced to flee. Classrooms are left behind, lesson plans are disrupted, and learning is pushed aside as they seek refuge in hopes of safety and security. Globally, only 9% of refugees have access to higher education.
Nevertheless, their dreams never die. For many, the desire to learn endures—even in the most uncertain circumstances. For Desange Kuenihira, education becomes more than learning. It becomes dignity, hope passed down from one soul to another. She works hard to ensure that education does not remain a daydream but a concrete reality that opens the doors to her success.
To Kuenihira, leaving her homeland was one of the hardest decisions she has ever made. She had to leave her friends, family, and the familiarity of life back home. The challenges she faced adapting to her new life were far from easy; Desange found adapting to the uncertainty of a new environment, the language barriers, and the differences in culture a daunting experience.
Desange fled Congo at the age of two with her six siblings and aunt to a refugee camp in Uganda. When she was 10, they all moved to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and had to wait 3 years until they learned that they would be boarding a plane to the United States.
Life for Desange was challenging even before she arrived in America. In the refugee camps of Uganda, where she was raised, food was not consistently available, and as someone burned her house in a fight one night, she found herself sleeping alongside her neighbors or even outside. Despite the love for knowledge that was embedded in her, it was decided she would stop going to school at a certain age and be given out for marriage.
Kuenihira was belittled by the people around her. They convinced her that she was meaningless and aimless, eroding her self-esteem. The fire within her diminished as people’s scorns were eating her alive, but it never died, not once, as she knew in the back of her mind that education was something she deeply loved and something she needed for her future.
After years of waiting, she didn’t dare put her hopes on America up. But when opportunity came knocking at her door with an approved visa, she couldn't help kneeling down and praising God as tears streamed down her face.
By the time she arrived in the U.S., she had started high school. Desange immersed herself in schoolwork, studying from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. diligently. She was determined to prove people's mockery wrong. Slowly but surely, the fire within her awoke once more, stronger and brighter than ever. She graduated from high school and earned an associate degree at the same time. She earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Utah: a Bachelor of Science in criminology and a Bachelor of Science in health, society, and policy, with a minor in entrepreneurship and pre-business.
Despite being given the fortunate opportunity to continue her learning journey, Desange is deeply aware of the vast number of Ugandan people who didn’t get that same chance, especially girls and women. She is determined to give back to her people and help them get the same chance at a marvelous life where they can determine their own future.
Desange started a non-profit organization called unDefeated as an undergraduate, providing educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for youths and women with extreme financial hardship in Uganda. Desange wants to prepare a better path for the next generation, so that they never go through the things she went through.
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