Tamana and Louise

Tamana, who came to the UK from Afghanistan when she was 16, shares her hopes for the future.

This story featured in the Child Migrant Stories project which explored positive and negative experiences of newly-arrived children, the importance of friendship and respect for difference. You can listen to Tamana's story here.

I was born in Nangarhar, in Afghanistan. I speak Farsi, Pashto, English and Urdu. When I came to the UK I was 16 years old. I came on my own.

In the UK when I came, it was very hard. The language was very difficult for me. I did not face racism when I came here. All the people were helpful to me, especially my teacher who helped me with my English and REUK helped me with my education. They help refugee people and they helped me a lot with my education.

"In the future I would like to carry on with my education and be a midwife. I’d like to study very hard.”

Tamana's mentor, Louise, explains why she chose to volunter with REUK to help Tamana improve her English and develop her sense of safety, belonging and optimism:

"I get a lot from working with Tamana. It reminds me often of how lucky I am that I could access the education system in the way I did. She is so grateful for the opportunities she has which puts things into perspective for me. Mentoring is also just really fun...I would encourage everyone to get involved.