At this year’s North American Refugee Health Conference, Nhial Deng will share stories from the margins—realities of displacement that too often go unheard. His plenary session, centered on refugee voices, is rooted not just in personal experience, but in years of advocacy, youth leadership, and global engagement.
Born to South Sudanese parents who fled civil war, Deng spent most of his life in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, a place that was home to more than 200,000 displaced people. It was in Kakuma that he discovered the power of storytelling. “School was the only place where I could feel safe, be a child, and forget what it meant to be a refugee,” he told the United Nations. That belief in the power of education led him to create the Refugee Youth Peace Ambassadors, a storytelling initiative that fosters dialogue, understanding, and peacebuilding among displaced youth.
Deng has since become a prominent voice in international forums—from addressing the UN’s Transforming Education Summit to writing for outlets like The Guardian and CNN. He is clear-eyed about what’s missing from policy conversations on displacement: “There are no better experts on refugees than refugees,” he told The Guardian. “We know what we go through. We live it.”
In recognition of his work, Deng was awarded the 2023 Loran Scholarship’s top prize of $100,000 to pursue post-secondary education in Canada. But he continues to frame his journey as a collective one, grounded in solidarity and in the belief that dignity, not charity, should guide how we design systems for those forcibly displaced.
His plenary session at NARHC will serve as a call to action: to move beyond token representation and toward genuine inclusion. He urges health professionals, policymakers, and community leaders to stop speaking on behalf of refugees and start creating space to listen to them directly. Behind every data point is a story, and behind every story is a person—someone who deserves not only care, but the dignity of being heard.