Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Jean Marie Ishimwe is a twenty-three-year-old youth advocate in Nairobi, Kenya. He is also a refugee from Rwanda. Today, he is using his coordination and motivational skills to mobilize young people to hand out food, masks, and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. “The struggles that I’ve faced as a refugee...give me motivation to continue doing the work that I do,” he says.
On World Refugee Day, we are proud to celebrate the essential contributions of refugees like Jean-Marie—during COVID-19 and beyond. You can learn more about our campaign at Rescue-UK.org/WorldRefugeeDay.
————Video Transcript————
“Hard times don’t create heroes. It is in hard times when the hero in us is revealed. “
Jean Marie Refugee Youth Advocate Community Leader
“It was important as a person in the community, as a refugee myself, to mobilise youths and other people to respond to COVID by giving out food and also give out information about COVID-19. We are from Rwanda, currently living in Kenya as refugees. The community is refugees and some of them also local Kenyans. These are people who have underlying problems. They are people who are sick. People who are traumatised. People who are jobless. You can imagine having to cope with being safe of COVID-19 or just being able to survive. The struggles that I’ve faced as a refugee, those struggles give me motivation to continue doing the work that I do. We’re not doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it out of humanity.
I am a refugee and a youth advocate.”
The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future.
Jean Marie Ishimwe is a twenty-three-year-old youth advocate in Nairobi, Kenya. He is also a refugee from Rwanda. Today, he is using his coordination and motivational skills to mobilize young people to hand out food, masks, and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. “The struggles that I’ve faced as a refugee...give me motivation to continue doing the work that I do,” he says.
On World Refugee Day, we are proud to celebrate the essential contributions of refugees like Jean-Marie—during COVID-19 and beyond. You can learn more about our campaign at Rescue-UK.org/WorldRefugeeDay.
————Video Transcript————
“Hard times don’t create heroes. It is in hard times when the hero in us is revealed. “
Jean Marie Refugee Youth Advocate Community Leader
“It was important as a person in the community, as a refugee myself, to mobilise youths and other people to respond to COVID by giving out food and also give out information about COVID-19. We are from Rwanda, currently living in Kenya as refugees. The community is refugees and some of them also local Kenyans. These are people who have underlying problems. They are people who are sick. People who are traumatised. People who are jobless. You can imagine having to cope with being safe of COVID-19 or just being able to survive. The struggles that I’ve faced as a refugee, those struggles give me motivation to continue doing the work that I do. We’re not doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it out of humanity.
I am a refugee and a youth advocate.”
The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future.
