My Name is BARARUGURIKA Zacharie, I am from Burundi. I was born in 1974 in Bujumbura. Because of the war in Burundi I was force to live my country in 1999 and take refuge in Zimbabwe. Where I was a refugee since 1999 to 2005 and I got a chance to do my undergraduate studies in civil engineering at University of Zimbabwe and graduated in 2004 for the first degree as BSc Honors in Engineering (Civil) under the support of DAFI Scholarship (UNHCR).

Due to the high unemployement rate in Zimbabwe; I opted to continue my studies in post graduate in Water resources engineering (WREM) at the university but without any financial support and managed to finish the first year of the programme.

Because of none financial support I ended up by stopping because I couldn't pay. And left Zimbabwe to South Africa in order to see if I can get a job and upraise the money to pay the part of my post graduate studies that I have done and sustain myself.

My major plan is that if God could help me; I would like to continue postgraduate studies up to a doctorate level. And work as a research scientist in a stable country. This will help not only to support my life and family but also to give thank to DAFI by paying part of my incomes to any trust which can help refugees student as me to also reach my level in their life.

Thanks

Zacharia