Mapenzi's Story
Mapenzi
Kinege,
Founder
My name is Mapenzi Kinege, I study Public and Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. I was born near Goma in the beautiful but war-torn country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sometime in 2000 or 2001.
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As an infant, I ended up on the side of a road in a conflict zone near the Tanzanian border. Somehow by the grace of God and kind people, I was discovered and carried into the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania as a baby without a family.
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For the next 15 years, I was never allowed beyond the boundaries of the refugee camp. The Nyarugusu camp was the temporary home for myself and currently is the temporary home to around 150,000 refugees from Congo and Burundi.
In 2015 I was accepted into a program that brings refugees to the United States. When I first came to the USA, I saw the difference between the accessibility of soap in the States versus the accessibility in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania. There, a bar of soap was not easy to come by. It was shocking how, in the US, people could take it for granted. Possession of soap may seem insignificant to some, but throughout my upbringing, it was an item that I struggled to have. Just like I struggled, thousands of refugees living in the Nyarugusu camp still struggle today for basic access to soap.
Helping Refugees
Like Me
I created this project to help refugees like me. I want to help people to help themselves to retain their grace and dignity with the most basic of unmet needs—soap.
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Now, as a Global Health Masters of Public Health student, I think more about the need for soap and sanitation, a very basic and important tool for all people. Improved hygiene through soap helps to maintain health and increase life expectancy, especially for young people around the world.
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Just as important, soap can help to maintain dignity and lift self-worth.
The Uwezo Soap project will help solve not only the lack of access to soap, but will alter the lives of refugees by giving them more resources such as job opportunities and easy access to sanitation.
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As a refugee, I am passionate about helping the lives of other refugees. My goal is to work with people and advocate for social justice in refugee communities. I plan to collaborate and create solutions globally that can change lives at individual and community policy levels. There are numerous changes that need to be made to improve the welfare of the millions of people living in refugee camps, but my priority lies in utilizing my education and gaining knowledge and skills to help refugees learn to make soap for themselves, and have a path forward with dignity.