The power of hope and community: from a refugee camp to ALU
Written by: Sidikat Olajuwon
“I Believe in People.”
“Everyone has a story to share, and this connects us as people.”
From a refugee camp in Uganda to African Leadership University (ALU) in Rwanda, this student’s life story is one of inspiration, resilience, and determination. His story reminds us of the power of hope and community.
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Steven Kilosho is a multi-talented instrumentalist, learner, and teacher forced to leave his birth country with his family due to conflict in 2014. They landed at a refugee camp in Uganda, where opportunities were scarce, and survival was a daily struggle. “Aside from being expected to live on four dollars a day, schools took refugees back several classes because they couldn’t speak English. Because of this, most youths drop out only to get pregnant or become drug or alcohol addicts a few months later. My younger sister was a victim of the latter.” he says.
Luckily, Steven had discovered his passion for music long before this. Both his parents were musicians, his father being part of a band called Sayuni. Steven could play the drums from a young age, and later, he played the drums for his parents’ church choir and a band named Umoja as the youngest member. This passion for music saved him from the same unpleasant fate as many refugees at the camp.
With a lot of time on his hands at the camp, Steven picked up a guitar and began learning different chords from different people until he mastered the instrument. Finally, in 2017, he left the refugee camp to build a career in music. “I got a scholarship to study professional music with Kaz Kasozi, a well-known Ugandan musician based in Kampala at the time.”
From Kaz, Steven learned three words: do, succeed, and money, in that order. He realized that you must first do what you love, let people know you do it, succeed, and then money will always follow. During this time, Steven began to learn English and discover how much the people you surround yourself with matter.
On his return to the refugee camp, Steven created a project to empower refugees by teaching them English, especially women, and children. This prepared him for a scholarship to explore entrepreneurship at the Social Innovation Academy in Uganda in 2019. His thirst for a better future, and determination to gain more skills, grew here.
With the belief that people had much to contribute to his life, Steven acquired more skills from everyone he met. He met a Spanish girl from whom he learned to speak the language and learned over seven more languages, including Portuguese and French. Not only did he learn for himself, but he also learned to teach others.
“At camp, they know me as an English teacher. Some in the city know me as a Spanish teacher. Many people know me as a musician. I can play about five instruments and speak ten languages, and I plan to learn German this year.”
In addition to his musical talents and language skills, Steven is also a footballer, storyteller, martial artist, comedian, preacher, and teacher. He believes in people and credits his development of these talents and skills to the support and guidance of those around him.
“A saying in my local language is that one bracelet on the wrist cannot make noise, but two or more can. From this, I learned that everyone matters,” he says.
Although Steven had grown personally, his financial and family circumstances had not changed much. Having discovered the African Leadership University in 2020, he was offered admission in 2022. Without a full scholarship and with the determination not to lose his future like many refugees, he set out to raise funds for himself.
“I would walk around the camp from morning till night talking to people. I spoke to 98 people and raised only twenty dollars in three months, which covered nothing. The value of the Ugandan Shilling is terribly low, but seeing me around the camp after the fundraiser, some thought I had just stolen their money for nothing.”
Again, Steven packed up and returned to the city to raise money through music. But even that wasn’t enough. He turned to his family, making the difficult choice to have them sell the farmland he had bought for them during his time as a musician in Kampala. He also had to withdraw the money he used to fund his sisters’ education. They sold six hectares of land for only four hundred dollars, and he used this money to get himself an enrolment letter to ALU.
Steven got on a bus from Uganda to Rwanda in 2023 with a hundred dollars, no living arrangements, and a refugee passport. He lost an unexpected fifty dollars at the border and arrived with only fifty. “I thought about how I would live with only fifty dollars but knew going back was not an option. I didn’t know how I would do it, but I knew I would live,” he says.
He slept in a generous stranger’s living room during his first few weeks in Rwanda. Several times he slept on campus because he had no money to return to his borrowed living room. Still (and I think we know the drill by now), Steven did not give up. He borrowed a guitar, showed up at a random studio in the city, and got a contract to play seven songs for a hundred dollars. With this, he got himself a small apartment and a mat he presently uses as his bed.
When asked what he wanted to achieve as an ALU student and after graduation, he replied, “I want to leave a mark and make a difference here and in the world. I don’t know how yet, but I know I will.” After graduation, Steven wants to grow his refugee camp projects and help refugees across Africa, especially children and youths, through storytelling.
Finally, I asked Steven what he wanted to say to you, lovely readers. He responded, “Learn to utilize every moment you have with people.” He explained that you would only be at that college for a while. You will only have the chance to talk to certain people for a time. You don’t have forever. Whatever time you have with people, use it judiciously.
And when you seek knowledge and assistance, he said, “Do not judge a person by how he is right now. The person next to you has what you are looking for.”
Steven Kilosho’s unfinished story reminds us that no matter our challenges, we can endure them and still dream harder than ever. Personally, I learned that people have the power to lift you as they have the power to bring you down. But you can decide which it will be. Steven believes in the excellence in people and how much we all matter.
That’s a belief worth buying.
About the ALU student author
Sidikat Olajuwon is an avid reader, marketing, and photography enthusiast, and a freelance writer born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a determined problem solver with a vivid imagination working towards a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at the African Leadership University while expanding her writing portfolio simultaneously.
As an avid reader and a John Green and Taylor Swift fan, she believes in the power of transformational words that resonate and move people to action. And she exercises that power in her story-telling approach to writing. She looks at the world through a writer’s lens, sees stories in everyday life just waiting to be told, and does her best to be the medium through which they reach the page.
