Nzitonda is from the D.R. Congo. Nzitonda spent 20 years at a Ugandan refugee camp before coming to Rhode Island in 2016. He is the brother to our recent graduate Uzamakunda (featured in September 2016).
Our trainees come to us as the most vulnerable who do not have prospects of working right away due to low English language skills, job skills. Nzitonda is one of our especially vulnerable because he has never attended school of any kind; this often makes for a shyness and reticence to jumping into the production with full force. Nzitonda started out cautiously, but had the willingness to learn. After a couple months he is now taking more initiative and even taking on learning one of the hardest and most important tasks, mixing the granola dry ingredients with the syrup.
Nzitonda has become part of a reliable team, and will be one of the leaders with Faranswazi as we bid farewell to granola graduates Maha and Murekatete to take on new trainees.
UPDATE: We're happy to report that he has a full-time position that helps his family with financial independence.
