RefugePoint

Farida, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), knows what it’s like to arrive in Nairobi as a refugee. She knows what it is like to begin again without a home or source of income. She also knows the skills and determination that it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and enjoys sharing her knowledge with fellow refugees. After launching her own business with the support of a $200 RefugePoint business grant, Farida now takes pride in participating in RefugePoint’s Business Strengthening Workshops (BSW) as a mentor. BSWs serve as a platform for RefugePoint clients to come together to share their successes and challenges in both business and life.

“I’ve participated in three RefugePoint Business Strengthening Workshops. I have talked about my business, the challenges I have gone through, and how my business is doing now. I have also talked to many participants one-on-one. All of them are refugees like me. I understand their struggles, challenges, and fears. I also know that they, too, can run their own businesses and succeed. I want to encourage as many of them as possible. I need to share the knowledge I have, and I am determined to do so.”

At home in the DRC, Farida and her husband Gatore had both been elementary school teachers but were forced to flee in 2015 after conflict broke out in their community. After a long and treacherous journey through Uganda, Farida and her family finally found their way to Nairobi, Kenya.

The first few months in Nairobi were extremely difficult for Farida and Gatore, both of whom were unable to find work as teachers. They struggled to support themselves and their small child. The young family survived on handouts and slept in a church, as they had no place to live. With great determination to support themselves, Farida and Gatore raised a small amount of capital through their church community to launch a small business selling fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, the business was attacked by robbers who stole all of their stock and possessions. When Farida and her family met RefugePoint, they were struggling to find a new source of income and were being evicted from their living situation.

In June 2017, both Farida and Gatore completed RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training, and each received a small start-up grant of $200. They invested their grant money into launching a business selling second-hand clothes, mobile phones, and fish. In addition to the business grants, Farida and Gatore also received food and rent assistance from RefugePoint. Within just two months of launching their business, the family was able to afford to pay rent for a small house, and even began hosting another homeless single mother and her three-month-old baby.

After saving a little more capital, in 2018, Farida began exploring the possibility of expanding her business. With help and guidance from a Kenyan friend, Farida was introduced into the rice selling business. Farida now travels about 230 kilometers outside of Nairobi, to a town called Embu, where she buys rice wholesale and sells it at a retail price in Nairobi.

“I supply 60 kilos of rice to five cafes in my neighborhood every week. It’s a great business! The orders that I get are consistent, and the clients pay on time. Additionally, when I travel to Embu to purchase rice, I also sell shoes, bags, and clothing to the traders there. I am constantly doing business, and I love it!”

Lilian Maina, a RefugePoint Livelihoods Associate, knows first-hand about the considerable impact that having a mentor such as Farida has on the other clients attending the Business Strengthening Workshops. “Sometimes, it can be hard to know the exact impact that BSWs have on our clients. However, I was able to see that impact for myself when I made a routine monthly monitoring visit to one of my clients, Peter. Unlike my previous visits with Peter, I could tell that something about him had changed for the better. From the way Peter welcomed me to his new one-bedroom house, to the way he confidently spoke about his business and life in general. When I first met Peter, his business was struggling. His stock was not moving, and his record-keeping was poor. I could tell that Peter was barely making enough to save. Peter was constantly thinking about how he could get a re-grant, which is not always the best solution for a struggling business. Sometimes all we need is a force to push us out of our comfort zone. Sure enough, Peter’s force came through meeting Farida at the BSW. Through the lessons that Farida shared with the group, Peter felt confident that he could make his business work. Peter requested to exchange phone numbers with Farida, which she agreed to. Farida also went a step further by making regular visits to Peter’s business for one month to give him advice and feedback. Farida even helped Peter to locate and move into an affordable and safe one-bedroom home. They are now neighbors.”

Farida shared with us: “In business, you must take chances, and you must try, put your foot in the door. How else will you know if you will fail or succeed? Or if a product will sell or not? I took a risk and traveled far outside of Nairobi to source for the rice. I took a second risk by deciding to combine the businesses and carry clothes and shoes to sell to farmers and traders in Embu. Did I have challenges? Of course, I did. You lose money; you fall ill; you are robbed. There was a time when I placed a large order with a farmer who didn’t deliver and stole my money. There was also a time I was given a bag of poor quality rice that I couldn’t sell. But now I know how to check the quality of the rice I purchase. I assess the texture, the look, and the smell of the rice. All of these lessons, I had to learn with time.”

These are some lessons Farida shares when she speaks at a RefugePoint’s Business Strengthening Workshops as a mentor.

In November 2019, Pierre, a RefugePoint client from Nairobi, Kenya, was invited to participate in a week-long training in Sanremo, Italy, which focused on human rights and internal displacement. Before Pierre was forced to flee his home country of Burundi in 2015, he had been working as a community worker with an NGO focused on human rights. Pierre had established strong working relationships with his colleagues and friends in his field of work, and one of these connections referred him for the training. Pierre received a lot of encouragement to participate in the training from his RefugePoint caseworker, Catherine Mwangi. Catherine and RefugePoint assisted Pierre in preparing the documentation he needed to process his visa, as well as coordinating travel insurance. 

The training, organized by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Italy, helped participants to gain a deeper understanding of the international norms underpinning the protection of internally displaced persons and refugees. The training also helped to educate participants about how governments and NGOs can participate in protecting internally displaced persons and refugees.

As part of the training, Pierre had the unique opportunity of visiting a refugee settlement in Monaco. Although Pierre’s journey as a refugee differed from the refugees he met in Monaco, he felt that he genuinely understood their experience. 

“After a few days of training, we went to Monaco, and we saw immigrants who were in prisons waiting for humanitarian associations to come and help them and perhaps give them a better hope for the future. I was able to talk with them and listen to their stories and share my own experience. They could not believe that I was a refugee in Kenya and that I was able to travel to Italy for such training. The refugees that I met in Monaco had cut across more than four countries and had risked a treacherous trek through the Sinai desert. Then, they sailed across the Mediterranean Sea in makeshift boats. They made this perilous journey with the hope that reaching Europe would offer them the opportunity for a better life. Now, they have ended up in refugee camps in Italy, facing uncertainty. They are unsure if they will ever be resettled. Their dreams of having decent housing, access to medical care and employment, are now shattered. They face an uncertain future, and I can relate to their situation. They are just like me. Their journey was longer and more difficult, but we are both refugees,” explained Pierre as he talked about his experience visiting a refugee settlement in Monaco.

Pierre was able to share some of the key learnings he took away from the training,

“I learned that some governments and associations that have a responsibility to protect refugees do not always respect the rights of displaced persons. We need to develop ways to make them understand what they must do to respect these rights. We learned that displaced persons have a right to have land to farm, to have a house, to live a normal life. They are entitled to sustainable solutions, and they must participate in the development of these sustainable solutions. This reminded me of a lot of my experience with RefugePoint and the fact that they work hand-in-hand with refugees to help them to develop solutions for themselves.

When I first arrived in Kenya, I had no source of income. Just before I met RefugePoint, I was working two jobs. During the day, I worked as a casual laborer on various construction sites, and in the evening, I would sell cooked pastries on the streets. My wife was unwell, and I needed to take care of her. It was too much to bear. When I met RefugePoint, I received food assistance, rent support, blankets and mattresses, and counseling for my wife.

Most importantly, I completed RefugePoint’s business training and received a small business grant. Using that grant, I started to sell mobile phone accessories. I now run a successful business, and I can take care of myself and my family. RefugePoint is an organization that is aware of the rights of refugees.

The training helped to deepen my knowledge regarding the rights of displaced persons and refugee rights. I continue to run my business, and I also volunteer with HIAS Kenya as a member of one of the Community Committees. I hope to use the knowledge I have gained to champion for the rights of refugees and displaced persons.”

During RefugePoint’s business training, clients are encouraged to set personal goals that they can work to accomplish within the first three to six months of launching their businesses. Soni, a single mother of two young children, knew exactly what she aimed to achieve: the ability to pay her rent and cover her son’s school fees.

Within just two months of receiving a small business grant and launching a business selling vegetables, fruits, and a popular fried dough snack called mandazi, Soni achieved both of those goals. Soni and her family fled their home country of Congo after facing insecurity there. While fleeing, Soni became separated from her husband and has not heard from him since.

After Soni and her children arrived in Nairobi in 2014, she struggled to meet her family’s basic needs and relied on income from unstable jobs.

In 2018, a RefugePoint Community Navigator in Soni’s neighborhood identified the family for assistance. After conducting an assessment, RefugePoint began providing the family with food assistance and school fees for Soni’s eleven-year-old daughter. At that time, Soni was selected to participate in RefugePoint’s livelihoods program, through which she completed business training, developed a business plan, and was granted $200 to launch a fruit and vegetable stall.

“The biggest lesson that I learned from RefugePoint’s business training is about the importance of savings. Before the training, I always used all of my profit. I wasn’t aware that I needed to divide my income into profits, money to re-invest in the business, and savings. I also learned a lot about having a plan for my business and setting goals,” Soni shared with us.

“There are many other fruit and vegetable stalls in my neighborhood. What sets mine apart is that I also sell mandazi, and customers are drawn to my stall because my mandazi is the best. I wake up and go to the market every morning by 4:30 to buy the fruits and vegetables for my stall, and then I come home and immediately start making the mandazi before I get the kids ready for school. My clients start purchasing mandazi as early as 5:30 in the morning, so I always need to get up very early and make sure everything is ready by then. Running a food business has been very beneficial for our family. We never go to sleep hungry, and now we have a well-balanced diet.”

Soni is now working hard to achieve her next target: purchasing a bed and mattress for her children. This is what self-reliance looks like.