Editor,
 
There is a saying that, ‘History repeats itself’ and within this Month I have really proved that History can repeat itself.

As a Refugee living in one of the East African countries, I managed to complete my Secretarial Course in one of the best colleges and thereafter I looked for a job.

I got one in a Company that didn’t mind recruiting a foreigner. What mattered was that you provided all the necessary documents. 

Unfortunately the company closed down, luckily I thought my qualifications would save me, but they did not.  I did not know that being a refugee would stop me from getting a job, but it happened indeed.

I only survived on temporary jobs thereafter. The rules were that qualified citizen got jobs before a foreigner was employed on permanent basis.

The pain of this was that, at the end of the day, my job description was to train new comers before I was sacked and forced to go look somewhere else. It was a really painful experience.

When I came back to my country, Rwanda, I was happy that I have left behind that categorization of being called a refugee. I knew that in Rwanda, I would work well as a Rwandan but unfortunately History repeated itself.

I was tricked to train a young man in my department on the basis that he would be added human resource given the small number of people I worked with.

I trained him excellently and to my shock I was told to leave the department I worked for over the last eleven years of my life.

My Certificate of Good Service in that Department holds no meaning ever since I was thrown to a place where I had no clue of the kind of work they did.

I am above 40 years old, and I cannot go back to work in a foreign country because I will be a refugee again.

Now in my own country I am training relatives of the bosses to take over my job simply because I am over 45 years old it is really sad when History repeats itself in a such manner.

Names withheld on request