Dr Becky Telford, Chief of UNHCR’s Education Section, is an education specialist with 20 years’ experience in supporting children whose lives are affected by crisis and conflict. She has a diverse background working on issues of human development, humanitarian responses and working with partner governments to strengthen systems. Working at headquarters and in the field, Becky has spent more than 10 years based in sub-Saharan Africa. She joined UNHCR in 2019 from the UK’s Department for International Development following a career with UNICEF, NGOs and corporate foundations. Becky was awarded a doctorate from the UK’s Leicester University in 2018 with a thesis that sought to understand the local realities of teaching with technology in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp. As Chief of the Education Section, she sets strategic direction for UNHCR, and works to ensure refugee needs and voices are reflected in global policy, planning and programming as well as building and leveraging partnerships which both ensure access to quality education for refugees as well as work toward inclusion into strengthened national systems.

Omega is a refugee from South Sudan now living in Uganda. He is passionate about using his own experiences to create change, on the topics of education in emergency, hunger and food security, and lasting peace in conflicts.

Rania is 17 years old. As a result of internal displacement she was unable to attend school, however, she was able to return to school following her completion of the UNICEF-supported summer catch up class. She was also chosen as a change agent to support her peers from her community to go back to school and advocates with neighboring school principals to register dropouts and out-of-school children.