RefugePoint

Jean, who became a professional chef in 1998, has dedicated his life to training both refugees and Kenyans in the art of French cuisine. “I really love cooking. It is in my blood,” Jean said when we visited him at one of the weekly catering classes that he leads in Nairobi, Kenya. John was busy teaching three students how to prepare chicken baked in custard sauce, oven roasted potatoes, fish, rice, pasta and steamed vegetables. 

Each day, Jean works as a chef in different homes and areas of Nairobi. He also offers catering classes to both refugees and Kenyans. He has trained 100 students since he began teaching! “I am proud because they (the students) have knowledge. When I leave this world without teaching others, I will go with my knowledge, but if I give it to people, they will continue to support themselves, help their families, and build the country because they are working citizens.” 

When Jean was younger, he worked at a house as a cleaner and used to peep through the kitchen window and watch as the cook prepared the day’s meal. One day, the owner of the house noticed Jean observing the cook and asked what he was doing. When Jean shared that he had a passion for cooking and a desire to learn more, the owner, who was a trained chef himself, offered to teach Jean twice a week. “He paid for me to study catering in a hotel in Bujumbura and I went to study there,” Jean shared.  “I thank him so much. I think if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what I would be doing now. I learned mechanics and failed and I learned making lights and construction and failed. My cooking career is a talent,” Jean shared. 

For Jean, being able to work and support his family’s needs has been extremely important. “This work means a lot to me,” Jean said. “I got married doing this job and I have five children who have been supported by this job. If I came to Nairobi as a refugee and I didn’t know how to cook, I don’t know what life would be like,” Jean shared. 

In many asylum countries, refugees face numerous barriers to engage in work that is commensurate with their professional experience. “Some people think that when refugees come, they come with baggage. But they also come with knowledge and that knowledge helps build a progressive country,” Jean shared. At RefugePoint, we work with refugees so that they can  build stable, connected and thriving lives. We provide business training and small grants for refugees to start and sustain businesses so that they are able to meet their essential needs. Jean is one of many refugees who have benefited from this service. He hopes to open a restaurant to cater to his growing number of customers.

“I learned how to bake from my brother,” John shared when we visited his bakery in Nairobi, Kenya. “I started this work 25 years ago; even before I came to Kenya, when I was a refugee in Tanzania, I was doing this work,” John shared. In his home country, John’s older brother, Peter* frequently brought him along when he went to work as a baker. Peter encouraged John to learn the skill. “He told me, ‘I will not pay you anything, but if you learn this work, you will see its benefit when you start your own business.’ When he said that, I continued to learn until I knew how to do it,” John explained. 

In 2022, John secured a business grant from RefugePoint, which he used to launch his bakery business. Because renting a store would have been costly, he decided to set up his business in a makeshift structure in a local school. Using only bricks and an old oil drum, he constructed an oven in the corner of the structure, built shelves for airing bread and pastries, and bought trays and furniture for the bakery.  

“I thank the almighty God because RefugePoint gave me money to start this job,” John said. “I had wanted to open a barber shop because I felt that this job required a lot of money, but later, when I went to RefugePoint, they told me I could do it,” John explained. “My wife also told me to stop the barber shop so we could return to the bakery business.”

John runs the business with his wife and employs two other refugees to support the daily operations. Each morning, John and his wife go to the shop to prepare bread and other pastries based on the daily orders. One of his clients has placed a daily order of bread, which he supplies in retail shops, and pays John at the end of each day. 

Through this business, John has been able to sustain his family’s needs and pay for his children’s education. “When I started doing this work, my life improved. Even now, my children do not lack food because everything I do depends on this work, which is why I can say that this work has helped me,” John explained. 

Although John was born in a refugee camp and spent most of his life in a camp, he is determined to lead a different life for his family. With eight children and a wife to care for, he believes that hard work enables you to live well with your family. “What can make my heart happy is to be proud of my work. This is the most important thing because I don’t know if I can feel happy without work. What causes me to feel happy in my heart is my family; it makes me very happy when I see them next to me. This work is very important to me because it helps me to meet my responsibilities to my family so that they can live well,” John shared. John hopes to expand his business so that he can continue to provide for his family.

John is one of the great testimonies of the value of empowering refugees to build better futures for themselves and their families through self-reliance. “I am proud of my bakery business,” John said. “…and I am proud to be more than a refugee because this work helps me sustain my family.” 

“Let me sing a song in my mother tongue,” Akach tells us when we visit her in her home. “My heart cannot keep silent without giving thanks or praising the Lord because He has done great things for my life,” she sings in her language, Anuak. “In my free time, I like listening to gospel songs on the television. I like any song whether it is in Kikuyu or English,” Akach shared. 

Akach runs a small business in Nairobi, Kenya, selling beaded wares and traditional clothing. In 2016, Akach and her four children were forced to flee their home in Ethiopia due to inter-clan conflict. “My life was good, but when fighting broke out, it made my life hard. During the time of fighting, I had been suffering. I had nowhere to run. It was not easy escaping my country,” Akach said. 

In Ethiopia, Akach worked as a cleaner, earning a good salary. When she arrived in Kenya, she was forced to figure out a new way to provide for her family. Akach decided to begin her business making and selling beadwork, a craft that she learned from her parents at a young age. Akach was able to launch her business by participating in a microfinance women’s group where each member contributed 100 KSh (about $.70) each month, and then two people within the group would receive a lump sum each month to invest in their business. 

“I used the money I received (from the women’s group) to buy some items and sell them, but it was small. I could not make enough profit,” Akach told us. With her profits, Akach was only able to afford one meal a day for her family and was not able to send her children to school. 

In 2022, Akach was referred to RefugePoint and began receiving support, including rent assistance, food support, and medical care. Once the family was stabilized, Akach completed RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training and received a small cash grant of 80,000 KSh (about $550) to grow her business. Akach’s business began to thrive. 

“My life has changed,” Akach shared, “It is not like before. I worried a lot about whether we’d have anything to eat. But now, I don’t worry about food, school fees, and rent. Since we received assistance, my business has run smoothly. There is no worry.” 

In addition to selling her beadwork to clients in Nairobi, Akach ships her products to the US, where her childhood friend from Ethiopia, who was resettled to the US, helps to sell the products and sends Akach the profits. “When I came to Kenya, she (her friend) took me in, and I lived with her before she was resettled in the US. She helped me a lot here in Kenya,” Akach shared. 

All four of Akach’s children are in school, and her eldest son recently completed his secondary education. “I want him to continue studying. Even though it requires a lot of money, I will make it,” Akach said. “In the future, I will have hope for a better life because I care for them now, and I make sure that they are learning well. If they work hard in school, they will be educated well and get jobs, which will change our lives,” Akach said. 

“Working for my daily living gives me joy. I don’t rely on someone else for help. Working for myself gives me strength and also provides everything I need for my living. I enjoy doing my job daily. Even these items,” she says as she proudly shows us some of her beautiful work, “I cannot wait until they are sold. I have to start the next batch!”

*Akach’s name has been changed for protection.

Trhas runs a business selling  ground flax seeds, injera and himbasha (a traditional Ethiopian bread) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Before she was forced to flee from her home country, Trhas farmed and worked as a cook to support her family. “I am a hard-working person. I love people, and people also love me,” Trhas shared when we visited her home. When Trhas met RefugePoint in 2023, she had been working casual jobs in order to support her four children, two nephews, and her elderly mother. “When I came to Nairobi, life was very difficult for me. I tried to survive by washing clothes for other people and doing whatever I could to help my family. I also enrolled my children in government schools. That helped me a little,” Trhas shared. 

In 2023, Trhas enrolled in RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training, where she learned how to start and run a successful business. Having been exposed to the catering business, Trhas chose to continue cooking and selling Ethiopian delicacies as a business. With a grant of $600, Trhas bought a grinder for the flax seeds, as well as a refrigerator and other materials for the injera and himbasha bread. 

“I am working hard so I can better my life,” Trhas said. “I am working and trying so hard to be self-reliant, but it is very difficult because I have eight mouths to feed, and I still have to send my children to school,” Trhas shared.

Despite the many challenges she faces, Trhas’ hard work and resilience have given her hope for a better future. She hopes to pursue training as a nursing care assistant. “I am passionate about learning because I didn’t get a proper education growing up. What will make me happy is seeing my children succeed with their education and start their jobs.”

Ahmed’s passion for helping others stems from his upbringing and remains a guiding principle in his life. “Helping others makes me happy,” Ahmed, a young father of four, shared with us during a visit to his shoe shop in Nairobi, Kenya. While studying engineering, Ahmed actively volunteered with the Red Cross, where he dedicated his time to raising awareness about first aid and engaging local communities in educational drama and theater. However, conflict and political unrest forced Ahmed to flee his country in 2013, leaving behind his wife.

When he arrived in Kenya, Ahmed encountered numerous challenges, including language barriers, unemployment, and economic hardship. Despite these obstacles, Ahmed did all he could to support his family’s needs. In 2015, after two years of separation, Ahmed was joyfully reunited with his wife.

In October 2022, Ahmed met a RefugePoint Community Navigator who referred his family to RefugePoint’s Urban Refugee Protection Program. At the time, Ahmed was juggling roles as a Madrassa (religious teacher), and a water vendor. After a thorough assessment, Ahmed and his family received vital stabilization support, including assistance with rent, food, and a business grant of Ksh 80,000 (approximately $600) in May 2023. 

Ahmed diligently saved his business profits and then launched a shoe business in a booming Eastleigh market. With the RefugePoint grant, Ahmed rented a stall and upgraded the quality of his merchandise. Ahmed now employs a fellow refugee in his store, extending opportunities to others in need.

“Self-reliance means being happy and having freedom. If your mind is healthy and not stressed, you can grow from small to big. If your family eats twice or thrice in a day, at least, you get happiness. Beyond that, self-reliance is about helping others, even if it is small. That is what I call self-reliance. I want to say I am proud of (myself). Nothing makes me happier than providing for myself independently,” Ahmed shared.

Looking ahead, Ahmed dreams of further expanding his enterprise by opening another store and continuing his journey as a beacon of hope and generosity in his community. “My hope for the future is to educate my children and help them succeed in life by giving them a quality education, the opportunity to live peacefully and to have freedom of movement, and the opportunity to expand my work (business) to a company of my own,” shared Ahmed. His story exemplifies the transformative power of compassion and resilience, inspiring others to lend a helping hand wherever possible.