Thursday, April 10, 2014

Young Champions in Africa - Burundi

Today, I would like to highlight one of my new found friend who his currently a fellow at Amani Institute  by the name Muco.

“My name is Aboubakar Muco, I came to this world after midnight on the 2nd of January 1984, in Nyamugari quarter, a small town in the Gitega province located in the central of Republic of Burundi. Due to the civil war in Burundi started in 1993, many children from my neighborhood left their schools but I managed to continue and completed primary education at Mushasha Primary School in 1996.
Muco Aboubakar from Burundi, Amani Institute fellow 2014

My father passed away when I was a little boy but my mother still alive with my lovely three siblings; one brother and two sisters. At the age of 17, I moved to Egypt after receiving a scholarship from Al Azhar Institute to complete my education where I lived 11 years from 2001 to 2012 and managed to study high school and University and both Arabic and English language, as well as worked as an interpreter/translator for refugees in Cairo. In 2007 I represented the Burundian Students Association in Cairo as a Vice President of the Association”.

 “I worked at Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) from 2009 to 2012 as an Interpreter/Translator by providing consecutive interpretation from legal and psychosocial service providers to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. As well as accompanied them to other providers in order to facilitate their access to medical, educational and financial services”. “In 2011, I received my first degree in Library Information and Instructional Technology at Al Azhar University. At the end of May 2012 I moved to Mexico City for family reunification where I worked as an English Teacher for a year and six months at a Language Center called S-peak. Having survived a civil war in Burundi and shared with refugees coming from all over Africa, I have learnt a lot from the consequences of war and displacement”. “I moved to England last October 2013 with my partner who is currently studying a PhD at the University of Sussex.

I moved to England trying to find opportunities to improve myself academically but I am currently participating in the five months Post-Graduate Certificate in Social Innovation management at Amani Institute in Nairobi, meanwhile I am doing apprenticeship at Nairobits Trust. Nairobits is well known for its great reputation since was established more than a decade ago by dealing and educating youth from lower class families to create a better place for them and opportunities for their future life. During my five months apprenticeship at Nairobits, I will be learning from its experiences to improve myself and be able to transform my ideas and vision to the real life I would like to be in, as well as sharing in different angles my experiences I gained in different countries as a community interpreter/translator and English teacher”.

“I have a strong passion for peace, poverty reduction and access to education for all and that is why I am looking forward to be a key person facilitator in social transformations to leave the world better than before, where people can live peacefully in their own dignity”.

Written by Muco

No comments:

Post a Comment