Meet Mmbanga

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Mmbanga was born in Fizi, a village in DRCongo near Lake Tanganyika, the world’s longest freshwater lake. Her family were farmers, growing corn, cassava, potatoes, and peanuts. Farming the rocky, mountainous soil was backbreaking work. As a child she remembers playing a fun game tossing stones into the air and grabbing others before the first ones hit the ground. But mostly life was hard. When she was 30, Mmbanga fled Fizi to escape civil war. She traveled by boat down Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania where she settled in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp. She remained there 24 years, raising five children....

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Meet Philemon

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Philemon was born in DR Congo in 2001 and learned Swahili as his primary language. When he was 12, he moved to a refugee camp in Tanzania with his family. As the youngest of 9 siblings, he was able to attend both elementary and secondary school.  At 15, he started his first job as a motorcycle taxi driver. During this time, he learned a lot about the mechanics of motorcycles and how to fix them. He clearly loves machines and mechanics of all sorts, including things like our packing and sealing equipment. Philemon and his family arrived in Tallahassee, Florida...

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Meet Sedeqi

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Sedeqi was born in Laghman Province in Afghanistan. His father was the principal of the local school, so education was naturally very important. The family moved to Kabul when Sedeqi was still young. This meant a better school system and more opportunities. Upon graduation from high school he went on to military university. He worked in media and administration, and eventually in operations, with responsibility to protect an airfield at an American Army base in Helmand Province. While Sedeqi is still learning basic English, he often gestures with one hand over his heart in a way that communicates a profound...

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Meet Laurent

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A happy welcome back to Laurent, who began training with BD several years ago but then fell ill and had to leave. He is back on his feet now, determined to find work. When he was 10, Laurent’s father was appointed a judge in North Kivu, DRCongo. The armed rebels in that area who preyed on villages for food and medicine resisted that authority, so Laurent’s childhood involved a cycle of fleeing and then returning home. When he was 18, Laurent moved to Ituri to become an artisan gold miner (i.e., not employed by a mining company). He married at...

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Meet Mina

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Mina enjoys people and likes to laugh. She has a sly sense of humor and tells stories about growing up with 7 siblings in Casablanca, Morocco. She loves sports, especially volleyball. She was NOT one of those girls who over-worried about her nails. In high school Mina learned secretarial skills. She studied economics at the university. Her favorite in a series of jobs was working as an HR assistant. She took risks to advocate for herself, but there weren’t many opportunities to advance. One of her sisters filed an immigration application for her in 2006. When papers came through, she...

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Meet Ali

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Ali was born in Bangui, Central African Republic, where he was raised by his grandfather. He has fond memories growing up there as a teenager with a big city for a playground. Ali studied Business Management at university and made true friendships. During this time, he also worked for his family truck rental business, which is how he got involved in humanitarian work. When agencies such as Doctors Without Borders needed transportation out into the villages, he would help them in the mornings and attend classes in the afternoons.   Ali never finished his degree. War broke out in 2013,...

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