RefugePoint

Baati is a single mother of three who fled from her home country with her children in 2005, after she and her husband were both arrested several times and tortured. Baati’s husband was a teacher and leader who was a very influential person in the community, and Baati worked as a businesswoman. Her husband’s whereabouts is still unknown.

In July 2018, Baati was identified for assistance. At the time, she was living in a small room with her daughter and two sons. She was struggling to pay school fees for her children, and she often requested community support.

Despite all of this, Baati maintained a very positive attitude about life and expressed the desire to start a business of her own that would allow her to support her family. In August 2018, Baati was identified as a beneficiary for livelihoods support, and after attending a business training, she was granted $200.

“I sell secondhand clothes, and RefugePoint taught me many skills about buying, selling, and pricing. They gave me a $200 grant and also taught me about profits and losses. Each day, I work from 6 am to 6 pm. From my savings, I have been able to pay for my children’s school fees. From my business profits, I have been able to buy a gas cooker, a T.V., and a bunk bed. My children and I used to eat only one meal a day and would go to sleep hungry. Now, we eat three times a day, and we have a bed to sleep in. I used to use a kerosene lamp in my house for light, but my livelihoods caseworker advised me on how to save, and now we have electricity in the house.

Before the RefugePoint business training, I didn’t know how to price my products properly. I used to make very little profit, but now I can price my products well and make a good profit.

The thing that draws people to my business is how I talk to my customers. I bargain well with them, and I can advise them on which clothes make them look good based on the colors and the design and their body types. It doesn’t matter that I’m a lady, that I’m a single mother, or that I’m a refugee. All that matters to my customers is that I have a good product and they want to buy it. I never thought in my life that I would be considered equal to other people. RefugePoint picked me up from a deep dark hole and gave me a sense of identity. RefugePoint is my family.”

“RefugePoint gave us medical assistance, and one of the most important things that they provided for us was the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) card. Having that card means that I do not have to pay out of pocket for medical care for my siblings or me when I visit a government hospital.” Orphaned after both of his parents died as a result of injuries inflicted by Mai Mai rebels in Congo, Moses is an unaccompanied minor in Nairobi, Kenya who cares for his younger siblings Antony and Vanessa. Accessing medical care through the NHIF fund is just one critical aspect of the holistic range of services that the family receives, including rent support, business training, counseling, and education support for Vanessa.

In 2014, after three years of advocacy, RefugePoint brokered an agreement with Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), allowing refugees to access the same inpatient hospital insurance benefits as Kenyans, for just $5 a month (a cost covered by RefugePoint for 600 of our core clients).  

The 2014 deal with NHIF meant that for the first time, all refugees in Nairobi were able to access free inpatient health services. This is an example of the type of social change that RefugePoint is influencing – where refugees have access to the same basic services as residents of the countries in which they live. RefugePoint’s system helps to create a future of inclusion for refugees, rather than one of helplessness and dependence.

Antony also shared with us that, “one of the things that has been most important to us is counseling, which has helped us to cope with all of the things we went through.” The majority of refugees and asylum seekers, including Antony, Moses, and Vanessa, suffer from some degree of residual trauma from their experiences of persecution in their home countries. Many are re-traumatized in Nairobi, suffering targeted attacks, violence and xenophobia. RefugePoint’s counseling staff offers individual and group counseling sessions to help clients process and heal from the trauma that they’ve experienced.

Given the right support, many at-risk refugees can rebuild their lives in their host countries. We support refugees to become self-reliant as quickly as possible so that they no longer need to depend on aid. Ultimately, the physical and mental health of refugee families is a critical component of self-reliance.

When a community joins together to accomplish a shared goal, great things can happen! Djamaba, a refugee from Congo, suffers from a lung disease and requires breathing support through an oxygen concentrator machine. Due to the high cost, Djamaba could not afford the machine that he needed for his home, and so he would spend months at a time in the hospital, away from his family. “Every day my wife would come to the hospital. Every day the children would ask for me. It was as though they were slowly losing hope,” Djamaba told us.

Word quickly spread around Djamaba’s neighborhood of Kitengela, where he and his family have lived for eight years, that he desperately needed an oxygen concentrator, so that he could return home to his wife and children. The cost of the machine was $1,500. The community decided to begin a group fundraising effort, called a Harambee, to sponsor Djamaba’s oxygen concentrator.

“The Harambee (fundraiser) was done at my church and coordinated by the pastor. Many people attended, and everyone gave what they could. On that day we raised $1,040, and I was able to get the machine, although I still have a balance of $460. I was so happy, and I was so thankful. I knew on that day that God had heard my prayers and had created a way for me, through this community that I live in. I may not be healthy, but at least I am at home with my wife and children, and I get to spend time with them now. I get to create and share memories with them.”

“I think I have always wanted to become a doctor. When I’m done with my studies, and when I have become a doctor, I want to help the people around me. My main dream is to start a hospital where our patients can get quality healthcare for free. Sometimes when people have to undergo very expensive surgeries, we see them having to fundraise on their own…so I would like to help people who require surgeries. That is my dream, to help people in such a way.”

In October 2018, after three full years of applying and waiting for scholarships to pursue his medical education, Didier finally received the funding that he had been waiting for and began his first semester at the University of Nairobi as the only refugee student in his class. Didier, 22 years old, is eager to give back to his community. “Growing up as a refugee in Kenya, I have received so much help with my education. Even when I was in high school, various people supported me in my journey. I got a scholarship when I was in high school, so it is also my dream to help other people to achieve their dreams in terms of education. If possible, I would like to pay for school fees for people who are in need.”

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Didier’s family fled their home due to persecution. In 2003, they arrived in Kenya, and ten years later, when Didier was 16, he and his family, including his parents and four brothers, met RefugePoint, which assisted the family with food, education assistance, counseling, and a small business grant. From the start, it was clear that Didier was an exceptional student. When he sat for the Kenyan Primary national exam in 2011, he scored 391/500 marks, despite the limited resources and overcrowded classrooms at his public school. His score was the best that the school had achieved in ten years.

Perhaps one of the most critical roles that RefugePoint has played in Didier’s life was encouraging him to never give up on his dream of pursuing medicine. “My social worker from RefugePoint, she has been encouraging me a lot – so much – in terms of continuing to look for funds until I managed to get the funds to go to medical school. She helped me a lot in those application processes. She pushed me a lot, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams.”

In the three years that Didier was waiting to see if he’d be able to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor, he worked as a teacher in a local school. “I enjoyed being a teacher so much. During the three years that I was supposed to go to school, sometimes it was hard because I would see my friends in their second year of university education, but for me, those years were awesome. It was just amazing working with the kids. So for me, those three years were not wasted. It was one of the most wonderful times of my life.”

This summer, during his school break, Didier has plans to volunteer with RefugePoint’s medical team. “I am excited to volunteer with RefugePoint this summer because it will be my first time working in the medical field. I think I am going to meet amazing people and learn a lot. I am also going to experience how it feels to attend to a patient, so that experience is going to be valuable.”

Didier says that the most rewarding part of starting medical school was finally being able to begin pursuing his dreams and interacting with people who share the same vision. “Sometimes the journey is difficult because, you know, school is demanding. But when I am doing my studies and when I am learning new stuff, I feel so satisfied, and I am like ‘yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life!’”

As an artist, Semret works with two mediums – words and wool. Semret began her career as a journalist, but her reporting was one of the reasons that she felt insecure and was forced to flee her home country in 1996. Although Semret continues to write books, and contribute to magazines, her main source of income for the past 15 years has been through weaving beautiful wool carpets, a skill she learned from Kenyans in Nairobi after arriving there as a refugee. Semret now works out of a workshop that she set up at a local church.

“My goal is to mentor other refugees so that they can learn these (weaving) skills. I want to have a successful business, and be self-reliant,” Semret told us.

Semret is a true craftswoman, sourcing the wool from local farmers, and dying and spinning all of her raw materials before transforming them into beautiful carpets – all by hand. Although Semret’s work always provided an essential source of income for her family, her role became even more critical after her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, impairing his ability to move and perform daily tasks on his own.

Semret’s primary clients are local hotels and custom orders that she says are able to sustain her and her family. Although she loves her work, Semret told us that the financial burden of the family weighs heavily on her and also affects her family members.

Like Semret’s family, many of the refugee families that RefugePoint supports in Nairobi are female-headed households. RefugePoint services are always tailored to the specific needs of our clients. In Semret’s case, her church was already supporting her children to attend school, and Semret was already running a successful business and able to cover the basic needs of her family. However, after her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Semret needed special assistance to access the medical services that he required. RefugePoint’s medical team helped to set the family up with coverage under Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), allowing them to access to the same medical insurance benefits as Kenyans, for just $5 per month. Semret says that the card has helped tremendously in helping her manage the medical bills for her husband’s treatment. Semret and her family also participated in counseling sessions to help them through the family’s medical crisis.

“I want to do this interview in English” Fawzia happily stated. “I have been attending English classes, and now I can speak it with no problem,” she told us, smiling.

“When I arrived to Canada for the first time, I didn’t know English. Life was very hard, and the winter was so cold, but now I have adjusted. You know, in life you have to learn to adjust to the situation that you find yourself in.”

Fawzia and her daughter were resettled to Canada in 2013, where Fawzia is now living independently and working as a caretaker. Fawzia met RefugePoint in 2011 after she had fled from her home country of Somalia. In Somalia, Fawzia’s home was raided, and her parents and siblings were murdered. Fawzia sustained severe injuries during the attack and was separated from her daughter at that time. She assumed that her daughter, like her other family members, had died.

Fawzia sought refuge in Kakuma refugee camp, where, miraculously, she was reunited with her daughter. After spending one year in the camp, Fawzia and her daughter moved to Nairobi, in hopes of accessing the medical care necessary to address Fawzia’s ongoing medical conditions.

Like many women refugees, war and flight left Fawzia injured, and thrown into the role as the head of household. She found it difficult to support herself and her daughter, experiencing homelessness and hunger.

Tragically, as is also the case for so many of our female clients, Fawzia’s daughter was sexually assaulted at a very young age. In addition to providing the basic staples of food, rent, medical support, school enrollment, and life skills training, RefugePoint also offered counseling support to Fawzia and her daughter, to deal with the trauma of the sexual assault. Fawzia and her daughter continued to face insecurities and were referred for resettlement.

In 2013, Fawzia and her daughter were given a chance to begin new lives, in safety, in Canada. Given that only 1% of refugees have the opportunity to access resettlement, there are many more women and girls like Fawzia and her daughter who remain stuck in dangerous situations. For the refugees who do not have the option of resettlement, RefugePoint works to stabilize them in the countries to which they have fled by helping them to advance, socially and economically.

Once resettled to Canada, Fawzia received assistance for just one year. “I am a very fast learner, you know? And after one year I became independent and no longer needed to receive support,” Fawzia shared with us. Her daughter, now age 12, is well-adjusted and excelling in her 7th-grade class.

It is just after 6:00 a.m., and the gates to Burma market, one of Nairobi’s largest meat markets, are about to open. Throughout the day, over 20,000 people – clients from restaurants, butcheries, and individuals, will descend on the market to buy their meat in bulk. Most of the meat sellers waiting at the gate are men – this is a very male-dominated business – but at the front of the crowd is Ayantu, a single mother of three, and one of the few women operating in this market. Although it is only 6:00 a.m., Ayantu has already had a busy morning, preparing breakfast for her kids, and dropping them off at school. Now, like every other morning, Ayantu will buy two goats and prepare the meat to sell in smaller units.

“When I go to buy the meat, the men in the market are very rough, but when you have problems, what do you fear? I am doing this for my children,” Ayantu told us.

Up until 2012, Ayantu and her family lived a comfortable life in Ethiopia. Her husband was a well-known businessman in trading cattle, and they were financially stable. But, one day, Ayantu’s husband disappeared, and after his disappearance, she began receiving threats. Fearing for the safety of her children, the family fled to Kenya.

When Ayantu first arrived to Kenya, she began selling injera (a traditional Ethiopian flatbread) to support her children. “I would cook and sell 200-300 pieces of injera. I used to work all day and all night just to make sure that I made enough sales, but times were very hard. One of my neighbors told me about the meat business and introduced me to a man who hired me in his butchery. When I started working in the butchery, my job was just to cut up meat. I would make about $3 a day, but there were many days when there was no work.”

Having worked in the meat business for more than a year, Ayantu was confident that having her own meat outlet could significantly improve her household income. She was right. After completing RefugePoint’s business skills training and receiving a business grant of $200 from RefugePoint, Ayantu was able to sublet space within an operational meat outlet in Burma market and now earns an average profit of $150 per month, which is about double what she earned selling injera. Another added bonus to owning her own meat outlet is that Ayantu is usually able to sell all of her stock by 2:00 p.m. and she can then leave to pick up her children from school.

RefugePoint’s holistic range of services, which includes counseling, medical assistance, education support, small business training, and food and rent support, are tailored to meet the needs of each individual client. When women, and especially female heads of household, like Ayantu, are supported to become self-reliant, this has positive impacts on the entire family, and ultimately the community. They are able to take their kids to school, meet the basic needs of the family, ensure that they are living in a safe and secure environment, and better plan for the future of their families.

“The thing that I love most about my business is the fact that I run it on my own. Before, I was selling for another person’s business, but now I sell for myself,” Ayantu said as she happily proceeded to close a sale.

“My personal mantra is ‘If you do good, good things will happen to you in the future’ (‘Ukifanya mazuri, mazuri yatakutendekea mbeleni.’)  that is why I take care of the girls,” Angelique told us.

In 2014, Angelique arrived to Kenya alone, after fleeing from her home country of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Upon her arrival to Nairobi, Angelique was assisted by HIAS and RefugeSHE, which provided her with refuge in a safe house, as well as training in tailoring.

Immediately after Angelique left the safe house, she met Denisa, Marie, and Sephora, three unaccompanied girls who were homeless and without a caretaker. The girls, having fled from Congo after their village was attacked, initially found a woman to care for them when they arrived to Nairobi, but she had recently abandoned them.

“We were staying in an abandoned house and one day the lady who was taking care of us just left us and went. She told us that life was hard and that she couldn’t stay with us anymore.”

That is when Angelique stepped in to care for the girls.

“Angelique is like our mother. She would do anything to provide for us. She used to sell slices of watermelon, she washed clothes and would even beg on the streets some days just so that we would not go to sleep hungry.”

Supporting the needs of three young girls was extremely difficult for Angelique. “Life was really hard. The girls were young and ill. I decided to move them to another house where we could live a little better. I used to do odd jobs to support them, but our life was really bad. We all used to sleep in one bed, and we would miss meals on some days.”

Angelique and the girls were referred to RefugePoint by Heshima Kenya (now RefuSHE) for assessments, and it was during the assessment process that the acute vulnerabilities of the household were noted.

“RefugePoint gave us clothes, food, paid our rent. Sephora, the youngest girl, is at school right now because of RefugePoint. Even the clothes we are wearing, we received them from RefugePoint.” Angelique, having completed RefugePoint’s business skills training, received a small business grant and now sells vitenge fabric as a source of income for the family.

Denisa, 16, told us that she wants to be a doctor or a businesswoman in the future, and her sister Marie, 13, dreams of being a lawyer or social worker so that she can advocate for people’s rights.

“Everything for us has changed since RefugePoint started assisting us,” the girls told us, “and our social worker has always gone out of her way to make sure that we are okay. We would like RefugePoint to continue to help other children the way that they have helped us.”