I am a Congolese former refugee and social entrepreneur. My work focuses on education and youth workforce development. A graduate of JWL’s Diploma program, I also hold a Masters of Global Human Development from Georgetown University. I am the Founder of Resilience Action International, a refugee-run organization that promotes education and economic self-reliance among refugees.
While living in Kakuma refugee camp, I enrolled in JWL’s Diploma in Liberal Studies. Being part of the program helped me build strong leadership abilities that I have been able to utilize with my organization and personal life. For me, the program stood out because of the opportunity it provides to students to get organized and work together. For instance, while completing the Diploma program, I also helped maintain the center’s computer labs and provided academic support to students in junior cohorts. I believe the opportunity that the program offered students to work together makes the program sustainable, as it considers refugee students as active contributors to the program. The program built a foundation that will prove instrumental for refugee graduates, whether they continue with their education or seek employment opportunities. For me, I believe the program prepared be to be better at working with and managing people and processes.
As a student, I believe the biggest challenges were logistical. These included difficulties with travel to get to the learning center, which affected the ability of students submitting their work on time. In addition to students. having mobile devices to study at home, JWL model to allow students organize among themselves helps mitigate these challenges by encouraging students to work together, whether at the learning center or other locations closer to their communities.
