Trainees

Mina enjoys people and likes to laugh. She has a sly sense of humor and tells stories about growing up with 7 siblings in Casablanca, Morocco. She loves sports, especially volleyball. She was NOT one of those girls who over-worried about her nails. In high school Mina learned secretarial skills. She studied economics at the university. Her favorite in a series of jobs was working as an HR assistant. She took risks to advocate for herself, but there weren’t many opportunities to advance. One of her sisters filed an immigration application for her in 2006. When papers came through, she...

Ali was born in Bangui, Central African Republic, where he was raised by his grandfather. He has fond memories growing up there as a teenager with a big city for a playground. Ali studied Business Management at university and made true friendships. During this time, he also worked for his family truck rental business, which is how he got involved in humanitarian work. When agencies such as Doctors Without Borders needed transportation out into the villages, he would help them in the mornings and attend classes in the afternoons.   Ali never finished his degree. War broke out in 2013,...

For the first time, Beautiful Day has a mother-daughter team in our programs. Ten days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Svitlana, Violetta and their cat fled to the Czech Republic, then Portugal, and finally, in August 2022, to Providence. Originally from Kramatorsk, Violetta, who had just completed high school, remembers shopping, the theater, and concerts with friends—some of whom lost their lives in the attack on Kiev. Svitlana had experience making jewelry and working as a nanny. Neither knew any English or had connections with local Ukrainian or Russian speakers. We’ve loved being their first stepping stone in building a new...

Majanga and Etindo are brothers, born just a year apart during a time of unrest. Majanga was born in DR Congo, and Etindo many miles away in the famous Nyargusu refugee camp (Tanzania). This is where the boys lived for 23 years before they arrived in Rhode Island in December 2022. Life in Nyargusu involved friends, soccer, siblings, and gardening to cope with food shortages. They attended classes through middle school. As they got older Majanaga found work helping build houses while Etindo learned to drive a motorcycle and worked for a friend with a taxi service. Both were members...

Victory’s family fled unrest in DRC when he was three and he grew up many miles away in Zimbabwe along with other refugees from DRC, Burundi, and Somalia. Camp life wasn’t easy. He recalls food shortages and sometimes only eating once a day. He enjoyed sports and loved dancing in a troop with friends. Fortunately he was able to attend school and learned to love math. But camp life was especially difficult during the pandemic, as social distancing meant school every other day and waiting in long lines for water. Victory and his family came to Rhode Island to join...