By: Anne-Marie, Galgalo & John RefugePoint Community Navigators The poem “A Victim of Circumstances” was co-authored by three Community Navigators from RefugePoint. We are staff members and refugees ourselves, working in the communities around Nairobi where our refugee clients live. We hail from Rwanda, Ethiopia, and DR Congo. Our group’s diversity made for a variety …
Read the full report here. Or read the 2-page executive summary here. The past few years have taken a heavy toll on refugee resettlement. The total number of refugees resettled worldwide dropped from a high of 163,000 in 2016 to a low of 40,000 in 2020, primarily due to the contraction of the U.S. resettlement …
From a very young age, DJ Montana* always knew that he wanted to become a DJ—he describes music as something in his blood. Unfortunately, in 2015, war broke out in his home country of Burundi, and DJ Montana was forced to flee. He ended up in Nairobi, Kenya, and refused to give up on his …
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary, a refugee from South Sudan, supported her family of 15 by running a business selling roasted peanuts and peanut butter to members of her local church. Mary also bartered her products at a community school in order to enroll her children there. The profits from Mary’s peanut business were …
In 2015, at the age of 14, Patrick and his family were forced to flee their home in Congo and sought safety in Nairobi, Kenya. Patrick’s parents struggled to provide for the family by selling mobile phone accessories and milk. In 2017, Patrick’s mother passed away, leaving his father to support the family. Patrick’s father …
In February 2020, Balolwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, completed RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training and received a small grant to expand her business selling tomatoes. Balolwa used the grant to add onions and garlic to her vegetable stand. Her business was doing well, but in May 2020, all of Balolwa’s vegetables …
Before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked businesses worldwide, Beti, a refugee from Congo, was already struggling to support her family of four by selling fruit. Beti was recovering from injuries that she’d sustained when she fled to Nairobi, Kenya, from Congo, and was also dealing with the loss of her husband. Beti’s eldest child, a 15-year-old …
Early morning showers bring the usual confusion on the busy Kayole Spine road, with matatus (vans commonly used for public transport in Nairobi) and buses aggressively angling for space in the long line of vehicles headed towards Nairobi’s Central Business District. Heavy rain turns small dusty pathways into thick mud between the densely packed apartments …
My name is Muli, and I work as a social worker at RefugePoint. Social workers are the coaches in the case management process here at RefugePoint. Our roles include assessing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating actions required to meet our clients’ health and human services needs. One of the most significant moments in my work …
In 2015, Diane was forced to flee from Burundi to Kenya with her three children. Diane’s husband died during the war that forced them to flee their home, and Diane, far from her family and friends, found herself without a support network in Nairobi. Since Diane wasn’t fluent in Kiswahili or English, she wasn’t able …
