Vedaste Mugisha

Vedaste is a 21-year-old young Congolese who is a refugee in the Kiziba refugee camp, located in the western of Rwanda. He was born in Kiziba camp one year after his family left the Democratic Republic of Congo. He studied his nursery and primary schooling in Kiziba camp, and then went in Rubavu, a District of Rwanda, for secondary school. One year after graduating from secondary school, he was accepted at Kepler, a nonprofit organization  that provides access to excellent higher education through Southern New Hampshire University. While working on his Associate of Arts in General Studies with a Concentration in Business, he has been hired at Kiziba Community Library as an English Teacher. In this position, he helped the secondary school graduates learn more about advanced English as their second language. Also, he helped the adult refugees who are preparing themselves to be resettled to learn basic English. Two months after finishing his Associate of Arts, he got an internship outside the Kiziba camp in ITEME program, a program of Kepler which help secondary school graduates to get access to higher education and be ready to get jobs. In this internship, he worked as a Teaching Assistant of English, Technology, Mathematics, and Professional Competencies. Currently, he is working on his Bachelors of Arts in Healthcare Management with a concentration in Communication at Southern New Hampshire University. He is working as a Learning Coach at Kepler Kiziba while helping new students to learn more about Technology and provide other academic supports. He is fighting against early pregnancy and drug abuse in young refugees from Kiziba camp which restrict them to proceed with their studies.