Man who learned to code in a refugee camp is now CEO of his own video game company

Lual Mayen.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CBS Evening News)

Lual Mayen was 12 years old when he saw a computer for the first time, and the encounter changed his life.

"I was like, 'Wow,'" Mayen told CBS News. "It clicked in my mind that I want to use that one day." Mayen, now 25, was born in South Sudan, and grew up in a refugee camp in northern Uganda that didn't have electricity or a school. After seeing the computer at a refugee registration center, he shared with his mother how much he wanted one, and she secretly started setting aside some of the money she earned as the camp's seamstress. After three years, she had $300 saved, and was able to buy her son a used laptop.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.