Refugees are often seen as a burden on a country’s social services, a burden on the local population’s jobs, a burden on the economy. However, entrepreneurship in refugee camps paints a different picture. The tidal wave of anti-refugee and xenophobic sentiment that hit the world in recent years encapsulates that feeling. Refugees are an easy scapegoat for intellectually lazy people.
First of all, we have to remember what a refugee is — a refugee is a person with a life, feelings, experience, family, fears, and aspirations. In brief, a human being, no different than you and me. The only difference is that they got unlucky; a set of circumstances put them in danger, and they had to flee their home.
As the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) states:
“Before anything else, refugees are people — fathers, mothers, sisters, cousins, and friends — people who are not waiting for humanitarian agencies to create opportunities, but who want to create their own.”
The overwhelming negative perception of refugees is not just damaging, it is also fundamentally flawed. More than flawed, it’s straight-up wrong. Refugees are one of the most entrepreneurial, innovative, driven group of people on earth. They have had to overcome a great deal of problems and challenges throughout their lifetimes. Adult refugees have added a whole lot of “real-life” skills such as resilience, perpetual problem solving, and grit ontop of any professional skill that they might have already acquired back home. This combination of strong character and professional skills is a recipe for entrepreneurial success.
Being an entrepreneur in a refugee camp in particular; most of them do business in the informal sector, and thus don’t have access to the traditional business tools that would be available to a “regular” entrepreneur. They are also under constant pressure to provide for their family, knowing that normal jobs are hard to reach due to their legal and geographical situation. Furthermore, many of the professional qualifications they earned back home don’t necessarily apply in their new country. For that reason, refugees have to create their own, unique route — entrepreneurship.
Let’s take a look at 3 refugee camp entrepreneurs that have defied the odds and are living proof of the incredible untapped human potential refugee camps are, a problem which our start-up, GrowHome, is attempting to tackle.
Um Murad
Let’s start with Um Murad, who lives in Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan. Um Murad is a Syrian refugee but was a businesswoman back in Syria before she was forced to flee her country. In the camp, Um Murad managed to get a small cash advance of 500 JOD ($700) to start her own beauty salon and wedding dress shop. She has run the business for 13 months and has already helped prepare 700 brides for their marriage.
Just think of the ROI (Return on Investment) on this; not just financial but also emotional and social. She managed to turn every single dollar into a wedding dress. More than her economical success, she is also bringing normality to people whose lives have been brutally shaken up by factors that are out of their control. Um Murad’s story shows how entrepreneurship can allow refugees to continue exploiting their human potential, even after a disastrous event, while also helping their community.
Mohammed Bashir Sheik
Second, we have Mohammed Bashir Sheik. Mohammed grew up in Dadaab camp, in Kenya, after fleeing armed conflict in Somalia. He taught himself English and computer skills through Skype by talking with people overseas. He then started his own web design business, for which he charges $800 a project. He works for the camp newspaper, and also runs a small grocery store. He now provides for his 4 children and is transmitting his computer skills to more people in the camp.
What’s incredible about Mohammed’s story is how little he needed to succeed. His computer and English skills were built through a combination of simple access to the internet, and the use of a small tech lab inside the camp. Furthermore, Mohammed was also able to get a $12,000 grant from a Danish NGO to start his computer hub. This just goes to show the unfathomable amount of human potential present in refugee camps all around the world; all these people need is a little bit of opportunity in a world that hasn’t given them much.
Adam Mugisho
The last entrepreneur we are going to talk about is quite literally the epitome of all the points we have been making in this article. The respect and humility brought to us by reading about this man is beyond words.
Adam Mugisho fled the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) settling in a refugee camp in Uganda. As a child, Adam had polio which completely paralyzed both of his legs, forcing him to get around in a wheelchair. However, Adam is not one to sit idle. He taught himself how to repair shoes and at the age of 30, he asked one of his friends to teach him how to repair electronics. Today, Adam makes a living out of repairing cell phones and radios for the camp’s more than 17,000 people.
These three entrepreneurs are just some amongst thousands of other entrepreneurs seeking to make a living and innovate within refugee camps. The grit, persistence, and creativity that these people have would be an absolutely terrible thing to waste. As seen in the stories, a small financial investment or even a privileged relationship with someone teaching you skill can fundamentally change a person, a family, and an entire community’s life.
These are the types of stories that GrowHome can multiply; it is a platform connecting diasporas to entrepreneurs back home. Through GrowHome, diasporas can mentor, collaborate, and finance entrepreneurs from their home countries. By deploying our technology to refugee camps, we will allow ambitious and talented people like Mohammad to get access to the opportunities they deserve.
This is exactly why we created GrowHome. GrowHome seeks to unleash human capital and potential on an unprecedented scale by connecting formerly marginalized entrepreneurs with people who care: diasporas. Diasporas often accumulate financial and professional skills while abroad and feel eager to give back to their home country. However, diasporas often don’t know where to start when it gets to helping back home: through GrowHome, diasporas can directly connect with entrepreneurs and innovators back home, and either mentor, collaborate or fund them. On the other hand, entrepreneurs have access to a brand new easy-to-use platform through which the opportunities and resources they once lacked are now available.
