“Even though we were refugees, my husband and I felt the call to come home and contribute to the rebuilding of our nation, Rwanda. I am really happy to be back, participating, serving and ministering to my country.” 

Joy, a project manager for a local church in Kigali, Rwanda, has a passion for impacting her community through the love of Christ. Despite chaos and disorder in her early years, Joy felt called to ministry and community development in Rwanda. 

Joy was born as a refugee in Uganda due to the ongoing conflict happening in Rwanda, her home country. However, it was not long until their lives were again in danger, which forced them to flee to Kenya, where Joy and her family were again living as refugees. In Kenya Joy faced many challenges, including not being able to obtain any kind of ID. This caused her to not be able to hold employment or even give her the opportunity to volunteer. Joy explains that, “People would say, ‘Who are you?’ and at the time, I didn’t even have a UN card - I didn’t count anywhere”. This caused Joy to feel lost and isolated but also gave her the drive to return to Rwanda in hopes to one day be a part of rebuilding her nation. 

After finishing high school in Kenya, Joy was accepted into a program by a local NGO that sponsors refugee students to get an undergraduate degree. Over the next five years, Joy graduated with a degree in Human Ecology and has since also obtained an MBA in business administration and project management. Joy used this degree to start her own fashion business, which quickly took off and became very successful. However, despite the success of her business, Joy was exhausted and realized that this was not the call that God had put on her life. Joy felt a lack of identity and describes it by saying, “can you imagine that you’re an adult, you belong to a country and you’ve never stepped foot in that country - you don’t even know what it looks like, there is so much curiosity”. In 1995 after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, Joy and her husband, both Rwandan refugees, visited Rwanda for the first time in their lives. They felt called to contribute to the rebuilding of their nation, they were just not yet sure how to do that.

In 2005 Joy and her husband packed their bags and moved their family of 5 to their homeland, where they now feel like they are a part of the development of Rwanda. Joy felt called to start a new career after running her own business for the past ten years. This time she wanted a business that was rooted in ministry and community development. By the grace of God, a door opened for Joy to be the new project manager at Christian Life Assembly Church based in the heart of Rwanda, where she would be involved with various community projects that help develop and empower her local community.

Joy has since been the project manager for many different initiatives. A current project she is overseeing is the building of a new technical school that hopes to open this fall. The school is based in an impoverished community and will teach and equip high school students with the technical skills necessary to get jobs and start life as flourishing adults. Joy also oversees a ministry that aims to help vulnerable women and children, working with single mothers in her local community who cannot afford to send their children to school and who also do not have the skills to get jobs themselves. Joy now has the privilege of mentoring and teaching the necessary work and life skills to 30 vulnerable women within her community. In addition, Joy started a joint sponsorship program within the church that sends these mother's children to school. Today, over 200 vulnerable children are being sent to school by the sponsorship program that Joy started within her church. Joy says, “These children now have the opportunity to finish their elementary school, go to high school, go to university and even graduate from this university; it is just sheer joy!”. Because of the dedication and vision of Joy, these mothers and children are now given the opportunity to go to school, have mentors, be discipled, prayed for and have life-changing opportunities. 

Joy’s love for her local community and homeland runs deep and is her daily motivation. Joy has a passion for helping others and also a vision for reconciliation and the rebuilding of her country. Joy loves being home and is excited to see how else God will use her talents to impact her local community and bring sustainable change. As Joy looks to the future, she hopes to increase her teaching capacity and provide tools to her community that will contribute to holistic transformation. She believes that she will be equipped for this hope for the future w by attending the Abundant Leadership Institute, increasing her ability to serve the vulnerable and multiply impact in her community. When asked why she wanted to attend ALI Joy answered, “My passion is to see lives change. Not to wake up to go to a job and get money; I am more interested in lives being transformed, and I know that ALI will equip me to live out my passion”.