“I have no words to explain how excited I am. My daughter has never seen me in real life, and we only see each other when I call on video. I can’t wait to meet my daughter. To hold her in my arms for the first time even though she’s six years old and going to school,” Daniel shared with us.
Daniel is a refugee from Congo who was recently resettled to the U.S. and reunited with his family, including his wife and daughter, after more than seven years of separation. Daniel’s story has a special place in our hearts at RefugePoint, because Daniel was a member of our team, and served as a RefugePoint Community Navigator for four years.
RefugePoint’s team of Community Navigators (CNs) are refugees who live and work in the many various areas of Nairobi, and who have been engaged and trained by RefugePoint to provide valuable information about health and wellness to their respective communities. CNs are an essential part of the RefugePoint team. According to Jacob Bonyo, RefugePoint’s Kenya Country Director, CNs help to identify other refugees within their communities who are struggling and connect them with services such as food assistance, medical support, and education.
In 2009, Daniel was forced to flee his home in Congo due to war, and became a refugee in Kenya. “Life was very hard for refugees because we couldn’t access any opportunities or jobs because we were not yet integrated into the community. We struggled and struggled until a door was opened. Some refugees were given employment opportunities, others opened businesses, and some took up casual labor.”
Many governments deny refugees access to public services and the right to work, leaving refugees excluded from the social and economic life of their host countries.
Although life in Kenya was initially difficult, Daniel shared that things were more bearable once such opportunities opened up. “I started enjoying the fruits of Africa as an African living in Africa,” says Daniel. “I didn’t experience much discrimination, although the employment system didn’t allow us to get wages that we could have gotten since work permits were an issue for refugees.”
In 2015, Daniel married a Congolese woman he met in Kenya. Shortly after, his wife was resettled to the U.S. Daniel stayed behind, hoping that he would be reunited with his wife. “Although it was a good thing for her,” said Daniel, “it was difficult for me as we were expecting our first child. The loneliness was too much to bear. So, I focused on my work while constantly keeping in touch with her. Daniel’s wife left Kenya on December 1, 2015, and his daughter was born in 2016. “Not being there when my daughter was born was the most difficult for me,” recalls Daniel. After waiting for seven years to be reunited with his family, Daniel was completely overjoyed when he received the news that he would finally be able to join his wife and daughter.
Like Daniel, many refugees experience the pain of being separated from their families during resettlement. Although Daniel was resettled through another organization, refugee resettlement is a longstanding priority of RefugePoint. Since the agency was founded in 2005, we have helped over 104,767 refugees access resettlement and other pathways to safety.
“I like how RefugePoint has stood with refugees,” said Daniel when he visited the RefugePoint office for his farewell event. “It has helped to shape me in different ways because I learned how to help people and to accompany those who are helpless. I even gained experience in counseling to the extent that some people call me a counselor,” Daniel said with a smile.
As he departed, Daniel shared how he hopes family reunification will be easier in the future. “Family is everything,” said Daniel. “Without family, life does not improve. Keeping families apart doesn’t give a real sense of resettlement; it is like separation. But when it helps to reunite people, resettlement gets its meaning.”