'I want to return to Ukraine'

This article is part of 'The Escape Diaries', a series about the personal experiences of African students who fled the war in Ukraine. Find out more about how the war changed their lives and what the future holds for them. In collaboration with InfoMigrants.

"My name is Olawale Abdulmajeed, I am a 32-year old Nigerian, a 5th year medical student, and had to flee the war in Ukraine not even a year after arriving in the country. At the Dnipro Medical Institute I hoped to finish my studies after transferring from a school outside Nigeria which was declared unaccredited. But the war shattered those plans, and forced me to flee to Dordrecht in the Netherlands.

I was born in Lagos, as the last of three children. My elder brother runs the farm together with my mother; my father is a car vendor who works in Japan and regularly comes home to Nigeria. My elder sister works as a nurse in the UK, and has been helping pay for my school fees, pushing me to finish my degree.

It was always my vision to become a medical doctor, and when I had to find a solution to continue my education as a medical student after my school was declared unaccredited, doors opened for me in Ukraine.

Moving to Ukraine

I decided to because I knew of several friends who had already been there. Affordable school fees was also a big motivation, as well as the opportunity to travel and meet new people.

I had already been accepted, and in May 2021, I decided to take the plunge and move to Ukraine, to study in Dnipro. I think Dnipro is a beautiful town. First I started with online classes due to the pandemic, but soon life returned to campus. Everything was looking very good.

I consider myself lucky to study in the Ukraine. It offered me an affordable education and the possibility to work as a sales rep on the side to support myself. In my own part of the world, we have to pay everything, we don't have student loans. You have to pay as you go. This has disadvantaged many people.

During my studies, I developed another of my dreams: to become an actor. I want to finish my studies for my mum and my sister. But I also dream of breaking into the entertainment industry. However, this dream is clashing with my family expectations. They think I have come too far in pursuit of becoming a doctor to just abandon it for entertainment. But I still want to sign up to a casting agency in the Netherlands.

I am hoping to find a balance between these dreams and expectations. For my part, I know I want to pursue other things than medicine. You only get one chance in life, so I am hoping I can work as a doctor during the day and as an actor at night. The war has opened my eyes to this. I try my best to meet my family's expectations, but for the ones I am unable to meet, I say to them 'sorry'. These are the sacrifices you have to make if you truly want to be happy.

However, I have also not given up hope of returning to Ukraine for my studies. I really want to finish, I want to go back to school. I would love to continue studying in Ukraine. Studying in the Netherlands is worrying me, as I was already a transfer student when I came to the Ukraine.

I don't know if a university in the Netherlands would accept me, and things are hard. My family is pushing me to finish my degree, I want to win a role in a movie, and there is still so much uncertainty over whether I will ever be able to return to Ukraine to finish my medical studies."

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Explore Olawale's escape from Ukraine to the Netherlands.