Source: Amnesty International –
Jonas Ndayisenga, co-founder and Executive Director of Umoja Refugee Creative in Kenya, knows all too well what it takes to survive. He first fled Burundi with his mother and young siblings at age three, survived the Rwanda genocide and moved on to Tanzania where he started his primary schooling before moving back to Burundi, only to flee violence again as a young man in 2015. Struggling to find work as a refugee in Kenya, he founded a community organization that now provides training and creates opportunities for hundreds of people. This is his story.
My name is Jonas Ndayisenga. I’m a refugee from Burundi and have been living in Nairobi, Kenya, for 11 years. I fled political violence targeted at young protesters. I was with my parents, who suggested I should leave when the violence escalated, and a few days later, the government came and raided our house.
When I first arrived in Nairobi in 2015, I had just finished a bachelor’s in hospitality and hotel management. I tried to get work, but everything was very difficult in this big city. So, I did an extra course and then started working as a cook. But the jobs I was able to get would pay me less than people who were working under me, because they were citizens and I wasn’t.
Many refugees face issues in terms of access to dignified jobs and being able to contribute to policy making and influence how things are decided.It was then that I had the idea of starting the Umoja Refugee Creative. The inspiration came from the need to do something that would actually help our community and bring people solutions for the long term.