Meet Our Students > Meet Our Young African Leaders > Arkanjelo L., Sudan

Arkanjelo Paul Lorem, Sudan

At the age of 8, Arkanjelo Paul Lorem fled his home in Sudan for the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya, where he spent much of his childhood under the care of a social worker. But when he won a scholarship to attend a better-resourced primary school, Lorem also won a greater platform to fulfill his dreams for Africa.

Four years later Lorem passed his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education with straight A's and earned admission to Alliance High School in Kikuyu, one of the best secondary institutions in the country. Now in the top 10% of his class, Lorem speaks passionately about education as something that "liberates the mind and enable[s] one to be independent and self-reliant…to discover his or her purpose in life." Yet despite his achievements he has not forgotten the community that raised him. He regularly visits Kakuma Refugee Camp and encourages community members to take action against the rising rates of teenage pregnancy among his former schoolmates in the Sudanese population living there.

The next challenge this young leader will tackle is the "lamentable lack of proper leadership" across Africa – an endeavor that resonates poignantly for this survivor of both the Sudanese conflict and the recent leadership crisis in Kenya. In the future, Lorem says, "I wish to see [an] Africa where one is not defined by his or her racial or ethnic background…but by what he/she has to offer to humanity…I wish to see a continent where leaders have the interest of the people at heart instead of merely fighting for power…I wish to see a continent where children go to school and not to the battle fields…I wish to see peace and stability in the whole of Africa."