World view South Africa Raising her voice What are the experiences of Congolese teenage girls as refugees in South Africa? Amlie Truffert and Rhonda Nicholl explore a recent qualitative study examining the girls lives Its hard to navigate being a teenager and even harder when juggling multiple identities and cultural expectations. At Ordinary Differences, we specialise in gender-related issues. For this project, our goal was to explore the psychological and social challenges Congolese teenage girls face when attempting to integrate into their host country in this case, South Africa. In 2021, we followed a group of refugee teenagers, aged 13 to 17, over a period of three months, using digital ethnography in order to hear and see through their eyes their experiences of juggling multiple identities, expectations and pressures, all while navigating adolescence. When you look at the media, the representation of female refugees is often the same they are depicted as passive victims of their circumstances. Their voices arent heard, and the diversity of their experiences is not being brought to life. We wanted to address this lack of agency and showcase a totally different (and unexpected) side that shatters stereotypical representations of female refugees. Specifically, teenage girl refugees. What we found were confident, determined and ambitious teenage girls wanting to be heard. They are smart, they go to school, they study like crazy, and they have loads of different interests. They are obsessed with K-pop and South Korean TV shows. They talk about crushes, share videos on TikTok and think Facebook is for old, boring people. This is not your stereotypical image of a refugee girl that the media often portrays. They are certainly not passive. Far from it. They want to shape and own their future. They want to overcome the obstacles standing in their way. One of the hardest parts of being a refugee is the lack of identity. This can even make their everyday life seem impossible: for example, some of them cannot sit their final, end-of-school exams because they do not have the correct paperwork. No final exams, no university, no opportunity to follow their dreams. But it also raises questions about their own, individual identity. If they arent deemed to be Congolese, as they have never been there and dont speak the language, and yet are also not South African because they are different, what does this mean? Who are they? This is a question they grapple with every day. We heard about the bullying they experience at school because they are different. Told that they are not African. That they are too black. And language is used as a weapon, as a tool for exclusion. One of the girls says she feels like an outsider because she cant speak Zulu, so shes powerless to understand what they are saying about her, both behind her back and often right in front of her. These are just some of the examples of what life is like for them but they arent defeated. They rise and continue to shape their future, despite these setbacks. The girls loved having someone listen to them; hear their dreams, but also their frustrations. It gave them the confidence to speak out and to be heard. Now the sky is the limit, and who knows one day they might even become researchers. This project was led by the girls. It was raw, direct and in the moment; rather than the girls reflecting retrospectively, we were able to generate feedback as and when it was happening. They ended up telling us about the world through their eyes. This wasnt done with fancy apps or software; this wasnt done spending huge amounts of money or with a prescriptive discussion guide this was done to turn an over-thought research process on its head, to just reach out to girls. Thanks to digital accessible tools, we conducted an agile piece of research, and we did it in a way that brought the girls story to life. They are inspiring young girls, and we look forward to seeing what life brings them as we continue to listen to their stories. Amlie Truffert is partner and Rhonda Nicholl associate director at Ordinary Differences 10 Impact ISSUE 38 2022_pp10-11 WV.indd 10 22/06/2022 14:46