Jean Marie’s journey is deeply rooted in his own experiences as a refugee in Kenya. Having faced numerous challenges in his early education, including a language barrier and struggling to afford school fees, as well as lacking refugee identity documents, he understands firsthand the hardships endured by refugees and their families, especially with regard to the lack of Identity Documents. He is a 4-year finalist at the University of Nairobi (UoN) pursuing a bachelor's degree in Journalism and media studies under the DAFI scholarship, He has been the Director of Youth Voices Community (YVC) since 2019 he has fostered an improved collaborative approach to addressing the needs of refugees in Kenya relating to social-economic inclusion and self-reliance and is advocating for refugee economic inclusion through The Future With Wakimbizi Campaign.

He serves as the East Africa Regional Lead for Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT), where he is responsible for promoting the Institutionalisation of meaningful refugee participation and refugee leadership at the state level in the East Africa Region.

“Refugees have aspirations, dreams just like any other person in the world and should be given a central role in driving solutions to address the challenges they face, they should be heard & should be given the agency to lead.”

Jean Marie Ishimwe