{"id":37597,"date":"2018-05-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/800-refugee-entrepreneurs-graduate-create-jobs-in\/"},"modified":"2018-05-31T16:25:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T16:25:00","slug":"800-refugee-entrepreneurs-graduate-create-jobs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/800-refugee-entrepreneurs-graduate-create-jobs-in\/","title":{"rendered":"800 Refugee Entrepreneurs graduate, create Jobs in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In line with the Government\u2019s joint strategy for the economic inclusion of refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Inkomoko has offered refugee entrepreneurs the technical tools and resources needed to grow their businesses, improve their personal financial sustainability, and create jobs for other refugees and members of the neighboring host communities.<\/p>\n<p>The 800 refugee entrepreneurs who recently graduated from Inkomoko\u2019s programme have already achieved impressive results. These entrepreneurs have grown their business revenues by an average of 88%. More importantly, these refugees are creating jobs. <\/p>\n<p>Lydia Irambona, Inkomoko\u2019s director of refugee services said that the impact of the programme reached out to a great number of unemployed Refugees and Rwandans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe policies of the GoR that allow for refugees to start and run businesses means that refugee entrepreneurs have opportunities to improve their lives while positively contributing to Rwanda\u2019s economic development. The refugees in our 2017 cohorts created a total of 2,492 jobs. Approximately 900 of these jobs were filled by other refugees, while remarkably 1,600 jobs were filled by Rwandans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the graduation event of the 2017 cohort at Gihembe Camp, U.S. Ambassador Peter Vrooman commended Inkomoko&#8217;s work in increasing the socioeconomic integration of refugees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are proud to support Inkomoko\u2019s work in advancing the Government of Rwanda\u2019s commitment to increase the socioeconomic integration of refugees. The United States is the biggest donor to Rwanda\u2019s refugee response, contributing nearly $50 million in humanitarian assistance in the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are committed to supporting refugees because we believe that everyone deserves to live in safety and dignity. Empowering refugees to become self-reliant not only benefits those refugees and their families directly, but also creates jobs and boosts earnings in their host communities. Supporting refugee entrepreneurs and easing their access to finance opportunities and the labor market is a win-win for refugees and for Rwandan citizens,\u201d said U.S. Ambassador Peter Vrooman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUNHCR is very pleased to witness this event, since providing or enhancing entrepreneurship and business skills are important components of our livelihoods and self-reliance strategy and will promote the socio-economic inclusion of refugees in Rwanda. The refugee entrepreneurs will not only impact other refugees but also local communities who will interact and mutually benefit from services,\u201d said the UNHCR Deputy Representative Ms. Barbara Bentum-William Dotse.<\/p>\n<p>Inkomoko is now working with 1,700 refugee entrepreneurs in the five existing locations, as well as two additional camps, Mahama and Mugombwa. In June, the group will host organize \u201cCommunity Network Day\u201d events, in close collaboration with the District Authorities, which are opportunities for refugees and Rwandan host community members to meet each other and connect about integrated business opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Inkomoko that has recently launched a tourism and hospitality accelerator in partnership with Mastercard Foundation\u2019s Hanga Ahazaza works with and support a range of entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and enterprises.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-25551 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-us_ambassador_vrooman_and_gihembe_camp_president.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. Ambassador Peter Vrooman with one of the refugee entrepreneurs \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-25549 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-3_entrepreneurs_and_julienne_oyler_of_inkomomoko.jpg\" alt=\"Some graduated Entrepreneurs with Inkomoko&#039;s Julienne Oyler\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-25550 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-gihembe_refugee_entrepreneurs.jpg\" alt=\"One of the refugee entrepreneurs graduates\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A total of 800 refugee entrepreneurs from three refugee camps, have participated and graduated in a business development program of business skills training, individual consulting, and access to low-cost financing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-37597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37597"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=37597"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=37597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}