‘They gave us that hope’: Creating space for refugees to choose what comes next

When the email arrived, bringing news of acceptance into a master’s degree, Nothando Ngcamphalala could hardly believe it. Just months before, she had believed she would never go back to study. Having fled from Eswatini to Ireland in 2023, she had given up her teaching work and dreamed of retraining to drive social change. But the way things were going made that dream seem impossible. 
 

Then, she was welcomed into a new programme. A first for Ireland, the refugee-led initiative was designed as a transition programme, supporting refugees and asylum seekers already living in Ireland to overcome barriers and progress to postgraduate studies. It was run by Afshin Samali and Adrienne Gorman – professors and co-directors of the Samali Foundation, an NGO dedicated to this cause. In August, Nothando had just completed the final stages of that programme, two weeks of research, and presented her findings. Then came the acceptance email. 
 

“I remember I jumped onto Adrienne’s shoulders,” Nothando recalls. “I screamed, I ran from Adrienne to Afshin, hugging them and it was just one of those emotional moments for me because it just said: Your dreams have come true. I think sharing that moment with them was the most fulfilling thing that has happened to me.” 
 

Plenty remained to be ironed out – the financial demands of a degree, primarily – but one huge hurdle had been passed. 
 

A passion, interrupted 

“I have always had a passion for young people,” says Nothando, 38, “[and for] creating spaces ... where they could feel safe to speak about what they are going through on a daily basis.” In Eswatini, even before training as a teacher, she had worked as a volunteer peer educator and an events organizer, enabling young women to share their experiences.  
 

This interest in advocacy and empowerment continued through her years as a teacher, where she worked to ensure her students felt supported and seen. Escaping to Ireland was an abrupt break. “To a certain extent, inasmuch as I was relieved, I was free, I felt I had lost a part of me,” she says. 
 

While awaiting a decision on her application for international protection, Nothando started volunteering, supporting elderly women, then found work with people with disabilities. She wanted to pursue further education but heard rumours that if she wanted to do so in Ireland, she would have to start from scratch. She applied, anyway, to a social work degree. When she was rejected, it knocked her confidence.  
 

“I had actually given up on post-grad,” she recalls. “Until this particular day, I was just browsing through my Facebook and this message popped up about a postgraduate education transition programme. And for whatever reason, I didn't even think twice about applying.” 
 

A personalized roadmap 

Being able to access postgraduate education is about more than prior qualifications, money, or ambition; in a foreign country, support to access information, translate skills into recognized credentials, and navigate unfamiliar systems can make all the difference. Afshin, who has personally experienced forced displacement, knew this all too well. The Samali Foundation’s programme aimed to not only equip participants with information and skills – but to accompany them in their aspirations. For Nothando, it “created a roadmap ... opening our eyes into realizing that we had all the capabilities to get into a PhD in this country.”  
 

In addition to training in shaping a personal statement, writing a CV, and being in an Irish workplace, for instance, the participants received tailored guidance, a strong sense of community, and space to chart their own path. Nothando recalls telling Afshin her story, in her own words. “From that story that I told, he was like, ‘I am not going to decide for you. ... Go, do what you want to do, and we are only going to support you’.” 
 

After thoroughly reading through course catalogues, Nothando identified an MA in Child, Youth and Community at the University of Galway. She was connected to the Dean of Graduate Studies, then the course director, who walked her through the course’s aims and outline, and the kinds of jobs alumni go on to do. “He took me through all of that and made me understand that, of course, this one is the right one for me.” 
 

The application deadline was only four days away, but Nothando was advised to apply anyway. So, she did. 
 

Expanding horizons, building community 

For Afshin, creating pathways into postgraduate education for people forced to flee is personal. He was born in Iran, as a member of the Baha’i minority. His family fled when he was a teenager. By the time they arrived in Ireland, he had been out of school for two years. He couldn’t speak any English, but he was determined. 
 

“I knew if we had stayed in Iran, not only would my parents’ lives have been in danger, but I wouldn’t have been able to access university,” he recalls. “So, when I came to Ireland and that opportunity was afforded to me, I took advantage of it.” He entered academia and never left – studying biology, then biochemistry. Today he is a professor of cancer biology at the University of Galway, researching factors influencing tumour development and progression.  
 

Education, for Afshin, is about more than individual advancement. His outlook is shaped by the Baha’i idea of a twofold moral purpose: that people should develop their own capacities while also contributing to the betterment of society. It is also a guiding principle of the Samali Foundation.  
 

Witnessing the struggles experienced by educated refugees seeking to access further education, Afshin and Adrienne decided they had to do something. “These individuals are highly talented and have enormous potential,” says Afshin. “Many had careers, qualifications and responsibilities in their own countries. Displacement does not take that potential away. But too often, they find themselves in low-paid work with few opportunities to use their abilities. That can create a cycle of poverty, but it is also a loss to the wider society.” 
 

Rather than provide a scholarship to a single individual, Afshin and Adrienne decided to develop and pilot the Postgraduate Education Transition Programme, with support from UNHCR Innovation, to dismantle the non-financial barriers to education for a larger number of people. “They came into a space and created an environment that said: Come what may, we are one. We are going to beat this, and we are going to get through this, no matter what,” says Nothando. “And they gave us that hope.” 
 

The programme was developed and delivered in collaboration with the University of Galway, with academic colleagues and friends volunteering time and expertise. For Afshin and Adrienne, this partnership between between civil society and academia was central to the pilot’s success. 
 

A sense of possibility 

At the Samali Foundation graduation ceremony, in September, Nothando stood proudly alongside three others who had completed the programme – people with whom she now shared a close bond, two of whom had also received Master’s offers.  
 

For now, however, she has chosen to defer her enrolment. Although she has secured a place, she is not currently able to finance her studies. International fees are steep and the scholarship application window had passed by the time she received her offer. She believes that, by next year, she will be eligible for domestic fees and be able to secure funding. She knows others are not so fortunate.  
 

“I was one of the lucky people to have been able to acquire a job, earlier into [my displacement]. And not just any job, but a good job. Because I know people that have had a work permits for 10 months and are still at home. And it is just a mess. ... Education is just not in their pipeline. They’ve forgotten who they are because of the challenges of navigating through the day.” 
 

These structural barriers are formidable. And they’re part of the reason why the number of people graduating from the pilot round of the Postgraduate Education Transition Programme was in the single digits. The success rate of graduates is, however, encouraging. The Samali Foundation is aiming to develop and deliver a streamlined and hopefully more widely distributed version of the programme in the coming year, to make it more accessible to more refugees in Ireland. Timing its conclusion more closely to scholarship application windows will, potentially, enable more graduates to smoothly transition into their chosen degrees. Discussions with educational institutions are ongoing to facilitate adoption and expansion of this model. 
 

For now, Nothando credits her experience of the programme as renewing her sense of possibility – and her faith that people are willing to help you, just as you are. “If we would just give ourselves a chance and explore what is before us, then the future is bright,” she says.