11/2/2023 UPDATE:

Oftentimes, when we give we don't know the outcome, but just hope for the best. But I want to let you know that your donation made a difference. YOU MADE IT HAPPEN! So many of you came forward to help Divine last year and she received all the funds needed for her to start at Brigham Young University-Idaho in the Fall of 2022!

I am happy to report that Divine is doing great! She completed her first year of university studies and then went to Washington, D.C. for the summer where she was fortunate to have an internship at a non-profit called "Humanity & Inclusion." Now she is back in Rexburg for her second year, and with the help of you all, and a particularly generous anonymous donor, she has received the financial help necessary to complete her degree. Divine works part-time on campus (in the library and also as an office assistant) to cover her day to day expenses and volunteers her time to mentor new international students. We are so proud of the wonderful things she is accomplishing. Not a day goes by that she doesn't thank God and all of you for the gift of education in the United States that she has been given.

Thank you all for your generous support!

P.S. Earlier this year a 501c3 non-profit organization called "Let's Help the Next" was founded by our dear friend with the mission of assisting more aspiring young students from developing nations to pursue their dreams of receiving an education. I am privileged to be able to serve on the board of directors and am excited to invite you all to the inaugural fundraising event on Friday, December 1st, 2023. For those who are local, I hope to see you there!

And here are more pictures of the great things Divine has been up to this year:

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8/6/2022 UPDATE: In order make your donations go further in providing a college education in the U.S., Divine has applied for admission and received a student visa to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho this Fall. We are so appreciative for your generous donations and thank you for continuing to share her amazing refugee story!

MEET DIVINE IRAKOZE, a refugee who lives in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi (Africa), with big dreams to help other refugees throughout the world!

Introduction:

Hi, my name is Kim. I am a lawyer, wife, and mother of four children.

In 2021, My daughter, Kate and I met this amazing and determined young woman while serving in a refugee camp. I am asking for your help and support to make it possible for Divine, this remarkable lifelong refugee, to attend college in the United States.

Divine has overcome the odds and received the equivalent of a high school education while living in a refugee camp her entire life. She is a leader amongst the youth and has started a movement to serve the most vulnerable in Malawi’s Dzaleka Refugee Camp. Divine is a person that you can just FEEL her spirit and KNOW she is meant to make a difference in this world. Divine recently received a U.S. Student visa and admissions to both Utah State University and Brigham Young University-Idaho.

 

NOW WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR HELP TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR DIVINE TO PURSUE A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY IN THE U.S. Divine intends to take up the cause of refugees on an international level after completing her college education. However, as a refugee, she has no financial means to pay for college. As I assisted Divine with her college applications, I learned that tuition for International students is significantly higher than what it costs for an in-state resident. All funds collected will be used solely for Divine’s tuition and fees at Brigham Young University-Idaho. I promise to be a responsible steward of the funds collected for Divine’s education and welcome any questions.

 

Get to Know Divine:

I met Divine Irakoze last summer when my daughter, Kate, and I traveled with 24 other fantastic teens and leaders as part of Humanitarian Experiences for Youth (aka HEFY/HXP), a 501c3 charitable organization. Our group, followed by several more groups, served for two weeks in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp near Lilongwe, Malawi, on the continent of Africa, working with Fraternity Without Borders and Ubuntu Nation.

 

Divine Irakoze served as one of the English interpreters for our group. Divine is a 22-year-old young woman with a witty sense of humor and an optimistic attitude. She also happens to be a lifelong refugee. Each day, I had the opportunity to talk with Divine as we worked together on several different projects. As I got to know Divine, I was incredibly impressed by her story.

 

Refugees are amazingly resilient people. Like us, they want love, respect, equal opportunities and dignity. It is not their desire to flee their home, land, job, and beloved nation. But for many there is no other choice. Often refugees are assumed to have been poor, but many I met were educated, prosperous and involved in the political process. Often their lives became in danger when a new regime took over their country’s government. When a family is forced to flee, they must leave it all behind. After losing all their earthly possessions, and often several family members to genocide, all they want is to find safety. For the lucky ones who survive the journey, they find out that life in a refugee camp is anything but easy.

 

 

Divine was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Her parents later resettled in the Dzaleka Refugee camp in Malawi and that is where she has lived for the past eighteen years. It is all she has ever known. Sadly, it is still not safe for her family to return to Burundi so although the camp was meant to be temporary, the refugees have nowhere else to go.

 

While the refugees I met were grateful for the safety that the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) provides to them, many explained that it is difficult because people look down on the refugees. Many I met were landowners and educated with successful careers such as engineers, architects, store owners and pastors. But they had to leave all that behind when they were driven out of their country. As a young girl, Divine says that there were so many reasons for her to give up hope for something better, but she was determined to make the best of her situation.

 

According to Divine, life in the camp entirely depends on food distribution and the food at times is barely enough. Divine told me that because of this scarcity, frequently she saw young girls her age be married off to older men in the camp and become mothers when they are practically still children themselves. Divine’s family endured great hardship as they survived on what was provided. For example, as part of the Covid-19 relief offered by the UNHCR, each refugee family received a bag that contained just 15 kg of maize flour, 1 liter of cooking oil, 1 kg of sugar, 1 packet of candles and a few soybean pieces to exist on for an extended period of time. Refugees are not allowed to work so this has left so many youths in the camp unemployed and susceptible to negative influences. In addition to the daily food challenges, refugees need permission to travel outside the camp, and education is only available a small number of children.

 

Divine is Making a Difference in the Refugee Community:

Divine knows the struggles refugees face and is passionate about helping other refugees. As a teenage girl, Divine founded the Dzaleka Youth in Action Organization (DYIA). Through DYIA, Divine and other refugee youth advocates for the most vulnerable children and elderly in the Dzaleka Refugee camp community. DYIA’s mission statement is “see a need, take a lead. … We are the voice and hope for the refugees in our community.” Divine embodies this principle so well.

 

When asked what inspired her to start DYIA, Divine explained that one day, she was talking with a small group of the 40,000 refugees in Dzaleka. They told her that often they would go several days without any food. She was moved to act. Divine recounted, “I could only see hunger in their eyes.” She mobilized fellow youth in the camp to come together and assisted the elderly by providing food and household items they collected from others in the camp. Although they don’t have much to give, Divine and the other youth are offering what the can and doing so with positive energy. DYIA currently is working with foreign volunteers to start up income generating activities so they can offer support to even more refugees.

 

Regarding her leadership efforts, Divine says, “This community need us. The youth living in refugee camps are looking up to us. It does not matter who you are or what you do. We all have a role to play in growing our communities. Together we can set the world on fire! This is my mission. It lightens up my day!” I saw firsthand how much satisfaction Divine gets from helping the most vulnerable in her community and it was inspiring.

 

Divine’s leadership efforts have caught the attention of others as well. Because of her community service, in 2019 she received an invitation to attend the conference of Young African Leaders in Nairobi, Kenya. This experience permitted Divine to obtain a passport and to leave Malawi for the first time! Other opportunities have come to Divine because of her determination. She was able to graduate high school in the camp, and also participated in Regis University’s (based in Denver, Colorado) online program designed especially for refugees. Divine persevered and was awarded a Liberal Studies diploma in Social Work, all while living in a refugee camp.

 

As you can imagine, opportunities within the camp are EXTREMELY limited for Divine. Divine has worked hard to rise above her difficult circumstances as a refugee, and her parents are so proud of her. Their Christian faith sustains them and gives them hope that somehow their daughter can reach her goal of helping other refugees throughout the world.

 

What Is Next for Divine?

When I returned to Utah in the summer of 2021, I was changed by what I had seen and felt in Malawi. I wanted to help all my new friends but there are so many barriers to helping. I did what I could and began contributing to Fraternity Without Borders, a 501c3 charity that owns lands and runs a school adjacent to the Dzaleka refugee camp. I participated in legal clinics for refugee in my local community but still one thought kept coming back to me – Divine needs to come to the United States for a university education. But how? Acting in faith, I resolved to see what could be done to help Divine. To be clear, Divine NEVER asked for anything from me while I was in Malawi. Even when I returned home and my daughter continued to message with her on WhatsApp, Divine just continued to express gratitude for our group’s visit.

 

HEFY/HXP’s motto is “there will be miracles” and that is exactly what we needed to help Divine get a student visa. Through a series of miracles, DIVINE HAS OBTAINED A STUDENT VISA and is CLEARED TO STUDY AT BYU-I.

 

Divine and I could not have navigated the U.S. immigration process without the tremendous assistance of my dear friend, Mishma Buisson. With a student visa, Divine will be permitted to work on campus so that will help her with her day-to-day expenses, however, SHE NEEDS YOUR HELP TO RAISE THE FUNDS FOR HER TUITION FOR THE FIRST YEAR AT BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY-IDAHO IN REXBURG, IDAHO.

 If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! You can see that Divine is a remarkable young lady! Her greatest desire is to make a difference in this world and an education will allow Divine to accomplish so much more for other refugees than I ever could alone.

So I ask, will you PLEASE SHARE DIVINE’S STORY WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY and will you PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION, IN WHATEVER AMOUNT YOU CAN, TO HELP DIVINE RECEIVE AN EDUCATION AND MAKE AN IMPACT FOR OTHER REFUGEES!

 

Much thanks! God bless you!

 

~Kim Swallow

 

Additional information:

 

Transcript of Divine’s Video - https://youtu.be/QyKc6LsCSeo

"My name is Divine Irakoze, and this is where my story begins. My parents fled home back in 1984. In 2000, I was born in a different country. Just four years after, we moved to Malawi. I knew nothing about home, I only know Malawi – it is all I have known as home. I grew up in Malawi and everything I've done in Malawi.

 

Growing up in Malawi inside a refugee camp has never been easy, but I was determined to finish my education and I thank God for helping me through and I was able to complete my high school. I have the passion of serving my community as I already do with the little I have, together with my fellow refugees.

 

My passion and dream is to advocate for wonderful people, especially refugees. I want to empower and train them on how to become self-reliant. However, I can only be able to do this if only I am equipped with skills and knowledge on how I can stand with my refugee community.

 

I believe that refugees deserve a good environment that calls for respect just like any other human being.

 

Now, I'm so excited to tell you that I recently got admitted at Utah State University in the U.S. to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in sociology. However, I do not have enough support, I therefore request you to help me raise funds for my tuition fees for at least the first year.

 

This is a life changing opportunity, not only for me but for my family as well as my community. I will be able to come back and serve my community as I already have a passion to do so. So kindly, help me achieve my dreams of being the voice of the voiceless."