Appoline's Journey to Empowerment
Today, nineteen-year-old Appoline is a dedicated and hopeful student enrolled in RefuSHE’s Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) in Kenya, but Appoline’s life looked very different just a few years ago.
Growing up, Appoline was forced to abandon her childhood home several times because of ongoing instability and violence in her home country of Congo. When Appoline was in the sixth grade, her family fled an attack that cut short her education.
During another attack on her village, Appoline’s older sister experienced horrific sexual violence that left her traumatized and pregnant. Her father lived in fear that the same fate would befall his only other daughter and sent Appoline to live with her aunt in another village. Appoline lived in her aunt’s village with her nephew for just a few months before their village was attacked by an armed militia.
Appoline fled on foot in the middle of the night with scores of other villagers but was soon separated from her aunt and nephew. Eventually, Appoline was captured by the militia and held captive in the forest with several other women and girls. After enduring weeks of forced labor and sexual slavery, Appoline managed to escape and find her way back to her aunt’s village where she reconnected with her nephew who had been hiding with an elderly neighbor.
Appoline decided that the best way to find the security that she had lacked for most of her life would be to walk to safety in neighboring Uganda. From Uganda, Appoline and her nephew traveled to Kenya by hiding in the back of a commercial truck. They were dropped at the UNHCR offices in Nairobi where they were later connected to RefuSHE partners HIAS and the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) for assistance. A caseworker at CVT where Approline was receiving counseling therapy services, recommended her to RefuSHE for further support.
Before joining RefuSHE, Appoline felt deeply uncertain about her future. Her journey to Kenya was rife with challenges and she constantly worried about how to take care of her nephew and meet both of their needs without much support. However, after joining RefuSHE’s Girls Empowerment Program in 2019, Appoline’s worries began to slowly fade away.
Today, Appoline is grateful for the support that RefuSHE has given her in the form of education, financial assistance, and the provision of basic needs. Since joining the GEP, learning new skills, and participating in vocational training, Appoline is more balanced, confident, and less worried about the future.
“My favorite subject is English,” Appoline says, talking about her love for learning and dream to become a medical doctor one day. For the last two terms, Appoline has been at the top of her class. She is excited to enroll in secondary school after completing her primary-level education and looks forward to entering university in the future.
We are so proud of Appoline’s journey and success in the Girls Empowerment Program! By ensuring that every refugee girl who enters our program has access to a safe and empowering opportunity to learn, RefuSHE prepares refugee girls like Appoline with the skills they need to rebuild their lives and upstart their entrepreneurial futures.