After years of displacement, hunger and poverty forced Esther’s children, Aldrine and Hafold, out of school. With support from Save the Children, the siblings have returned to learning, received psychosocial support and gained renewed confidence, while cash assistance helped their family rebuild a safer home. Their journey shows how education and humanitarian support can help children move beyond survival and reclaim hope for the future.
The unfinished shop was not a home, but it was the safest place Esther Salma* could find for her children.
After strong winds tore apart the family’s shelter, 36-year-old Esther was left sleeping on the bare ground while her children squeezed into the unfinished structure nearby. For a mother who had already fled conflict, lost her husband and crossed two countries in search of safety, it was yet another reminder of how quickly life can unravel. But when Save the Children officers met Esther and her family in the refugee camp, they found more than a family struggling to survive. They found two children who had been pushed out of school by hunger and a mother determined not to let poverty take away their future.
Esther, a mother of four, knows too well what it means to lose everything.
She fled Burundi after conflict claimed the life of her husband. In 2015, she sought safety in Uganda, where she spent seven years as an asylum seeker. Eventually, faced with persistent hunger and limited opportunities, she moved to Kenya hoping to give her children a better life. Instead, the family found themselves trapped in another cycle of hardship. There were days when there was simply nothing to eat.
“There were times when we only cooked once a week because we did not have enough food,” Esther says. “My children had to beg so that we could survive. As a mother, it was painful to watch them suffer.”
Hunger began taking more from the family than their next meal. It started taking away their children's education. Aldrine*, 14, and Hafold*, 13, became too weak to attend school regularly. Eventually, they stopped going altogether. While other children walked to school each morning, Esther's children remained at home, their education interrupted by circumstances they could not control.
The situation changed when a Save the Children lay counsellor conducting community outreach came across the family and noticed that the two children were out of school. The conversation with Esther opened a door. Through the European Union-supported Accelerated Education Programme (AEP), implemented under Save the Children’s Education in Emergencies programming, Aldrine and Hafold were enrolled back into learning. For children whose education had been disrupted by displacement, poverty and hunger, returning to school was a chance to begin catching up but also to feel like children again. They received psychosocial support and dignity kits alongside their education, helping them deal with some of the emotional and social challenges they had experienced.
Esther began seeing a change. Her children became happier and more confident. They started attending school more regularly.
But the family’s struggles did not end at the school gate.
Food remains scarce, and Esther still has to make difficult choices to ensure all four children have something to eat. Sometimes, she asks Aldrine and Hafold to bring their school meals home rather than eat them at school, so they can share with their younger brothers and sisters.
“I tell my children to bring their school meals home so they can share with their younger brothers and sisters because hunger is still our biggest problem,” she says.
Esther Salma* stands with her children, outside their home in the refugee camp in Kenya. After being forced out of school by hunger, the siblings are now back in class with support from Save the Children. Gideon Ole / Save the Children
Then came the storm.
Strong winds destroyed the family's shelter, leaving Esther and her children without a safe place to sleep. Esther slept on the bare ground while her children sought shelter in an unfinished shop. Through Save the Children’s Humanitarian Fund cash-transfer intervention, Esther received assistance to repair and renovate the family's shelter. It was more than fixing a damaged tent. It gave the family a safer place to sleep, helped restore some stability and created an environment where the children could continue attending school.
Esther’s experience illustrates how several crises can combine to push children out of school. Children from refugee and asylum-seeking families face multiple barriers to education, including poverty, displacement, trauma and food insecurity. In Esther’s case, those barriers had already taken her children out of school. Community-based identification and outreach helped reconnect them with education through AEP, while psychosocial support and dignity kits addressed some of the emotional and protection challenges they faced.
The cash assistance helped address other urgent needs, giving the family greater stability and complementing the education support the children were receiving. Today, Aldrine and Hafold are back in school. Their family is still facing hunger. Esther still worries about what tomorrow will bring. But there is something different in the household now: the possibility of a future that once seemed to be slipping away.
For a mother who has spent years moving from one place to another in search of safety, Esther's hopes are rooted in something simple. She wants her children to learn. She wants them to stay healthy. And she wants them to have opportunities beyond the hardship that has shaped much of their childhood.
“I am grateful that my children are back in school and receiving support,” she says. “My dream is to see them learn, succeed and have a better future.”
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
