A STUDENT at Bradford College has been chosen to be the voice of a new BBC animated short film about child refugees.

The new film, called Ruth’s Story, which has been featured on the CBBC Newsround programme, and is now on the BBC website, tells the story of a 14-year-old child refugee.

In the cartoon, Ruth has to flee her home country of Eritrea after being told she either has to join the military or enter into a forced marriage.

Ruth’s harrowing journey, by foot, lorry, train and boat, sees her travel through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France, before reaching the UK where she now lives with a foster family.

Selame Negussie, 21, a science student from Leeds, narrates the tale, after programme makers got in touch with her parents’ restaurant during their talent search for someone with an East African accent to do the voiceover.

The producers contacted Melkam Megeb, her parents’ restaurant in Leeds which serves authentic Ethiopian dishes, and after learning more about the film, Miss Negussie agreed to travel to the BBC offices in MediaCityUK, in Salford for the recording.

As someone who emigrated to Great Britain from Africa as a teenager, albeit in less traumatic circumstances that the young girl in the story, Miss Negussie, who has also done voluntary work with refugees in Bradford, said she was thrilled to hep with the educational film.

She said: “I hope the children who watch this will become a bit more understanding when they see other children like Ruth, who didn’t speak English when she arrived in England, struggle in school.

“I hope that instead of laughing at them or mocking them, they can actually help them and become friends with them. Fortunately for me, I didn’t go through such horrors as Ruth, but I do know of some people who have been through something very similar.

“I’m very happy that Ruth is now in a safe place and I hope her story can be used to voice the voiceless and help put an end to the current immigration crisis. The fact that I used my voice to tell the story of a girl form the same background as me felt amazing.”

After moving to the UK from Kenya with her family, Miss Negussie enrolled at Bradford College in 2013, where she successfully attained GCSEs and AS Levels, and is now on a science course she hopes will help her progress to study psychology at university.