Olympic boxer Ramla Ali: 'I'm fighting international aid cuts crushing children's dreams'

I don’t know my own birthday. My family and I fled Somalia when I was just a child, after my brother was killed by a stray grenade in the war. In the chaos of escape, my birth certificate and our family photos were among the many belongings lost when we became refugees.

We made it to Kenya, where I remember hiding in a cave while mum queued for aid and food supplies. That support kept us alive until we were granted asylum in the UK. I was able to go to school, discover boxing and even compete in the sport at the Tokyo Olympics as the first Somali ever to do so – a long way from that cave and the war in my home country.

That’s why returning to Kenya in September this year with UNICEF UK felt personal. I was walking in the footsteps of the child I once was, meeting other children and young girls whose lives could have been mine, and seeing what happens when the world turns away and denies them of global aid.

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I visited Dadaab, Kenya’s largest refugee camp and home to more than 400,000 people, including Somali and South Sudanese refugees. There, 16-year-old Bishara ran up in her red scarf to hug me and said my story had inspired her to stay in school. I also met 17-year-old Leila who dreams of becoming a nurse; Miriam who wants to study psychology to help girls like her in the camp; and Umeima who hopes to become a doctor.

“I want to help people who can’t afford medicine, even if I have to do it from my own heart,” she told me. Their classroom had little more than wooden desks and a chalkboard – but it was filled with hope and opportunity to learn.

But children need more than this to survive. In two days, I witnessed three girls collapse from lack of water and essential nutrients, in the heat. I heard how there is limited water in the camp due to lack of fuel for water pumps because of aid cuts. Refugees in the camp now receive less than half the UNHCR’s (The UN Refugee Agency) emergency minimum standard, not enough to drink, wash, or cook. Schools that UNICEF is working with have barely enough clean water for children who attend, and it needs to be rationed carefully so they have enough to drink and wash during the day. It pained me to see girls fainting, while studying and fighting for their dreams, and realising this situation could become even worse.

During my time in Dadaab, I saw how vital education is. UNICEF is working with partners in the camp to help children catch up on schooling they’ve missed and provide specialist programmes in STEM subjects. School doesn’t only provide an education, but it gives children hope, opportunity, and protection from early marriage and exploitation. School is a lifeline.

As Patrick, a headteacher I met who has helped to intercept girls from forced marriages and support them to stay in school, said, “once you educate a girl, you educate a community”.

I also visited a small salon run by “Nyador,” a young South Sudanese mother who fled sexual violence when she was just 11. After receiving training and peer-to-peer support sessions from UNICEF and partners in the camp, she learned hairdressing and now runs a small business with other young mothers. “If I eat, everyone eats,” she told me, explaining how they share their income and support one another as a community. Her resilience and strength stayed with me.

In fact, strength was everywhere I went — but so was strain. Teachers trying to inspire students without enough resources. Mothers juggling childcare with survival. Families skipping meals. Each of these struggles is impacted by funding cuts to overseas aid. UNICEF has said up to six million children may miss out on education in the next year because of donor aid cuts.

Earlier this year, the UK government announced it will reduce its overseas aid budget by 40% by 2027. These cuts are expected to fall hardest on children and the education, health and nutrition programmes they so desperately need, after decades of progress and putting millions of children’s lives and futures at risk.

In places like Dadaab, aid cuts from other governments around the world has already seen teachers losing their jobs, clinics running short of medicine, food rations and lack of clean water exposing more children to risk of malnutrition. This is on top of refugee families already battling drought and conflict. The girls I met are being let down by decisions made thousands of miles away.

In the growing conversations about refugees, it’s easy to lose sight of humanity when everything becomes about numbers — budgets, statistics, and people alike. But behind every figure are faces like those I met who want safety, opportunity, and a chance to live. They are individuals, each with stories, hopes, and fears. Remembering that is what keeps our compassion alive.

That’s why I’m supporting UNICEF UK in calling on the UK government to commit to spending at least 25% of its aid budget on children and the vital programmes they need across education, protection, health and nutrition.

Standing in Dadaab, surrounded by girls dreaming beyond the limits, I talked to many of them, and really saw my younger self in each of them, and what the future may hold for them if the world looks away. I also know what aid means, the aid that was provided to my family when we needed it and I wouldn’t be here without it. I am living proof that aid works.

Their fights aren’t fair, but losing isn’t just about missed opportunities – it’s lost dreams, lost futures and a generation denied the chance to learn and hope for something better. This is the fight children’s lives depend on, the least we can do is stand in their corner and fight back in their honour.

Ramla Ali is a UNICEF UK ambassador. Join UNICEF UK and write to your MP today to prioritise children in the UK aid budget here.

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