Meet Glory: The Congolese refugee and SNHU GEM student working to end hunger in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Glory will join SNHU GEM students from around the world at a World Refugee Day panel on Thursday, June 23.
Glory (Lukambo) Luundo is a student at Southern New Hampshire University’s Global Education Movement (SNHU GEM) and Congolese refugee living in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Glory fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2016 after completing high school in the DRC. His refugee status made it difficult to access higher education or employment opportunities in his new host country. In 2020, when he discovered that SNHU GEM and our in-country partner, Jesuit Refugee Services offered a pathway to higher education, Glory decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management with a concentration in global perspectives. He anticipates graduating in June 2023.
In 2018, Glory co-founded Vijana Twaweza Club (VTC), a Kakuma camp youth group with 40 members. Glory credits his SNHU GEM education for providing him with the “leadership, management, and entrepreneurship skills that have tremendously helped me and the Vijana Twaweza Club grow.”
In partnership with VTC members, Glory started the internationally-recognized, award-winning Fishing in the Desert Project to fight malnutrition and hunger in Kakuma camp. The Fishing in the Desert team won the United Nations World Food Programme’s first NextGen East African Innovators Programme in 2021, which provides support and intensive mentorship for student innovators from East Africa as they develop solutions to food-related challenges.
Glory recently began a new position as a learning facilitator at Amala Education, where he helps refugees hone their social entrepreneurship and leadership skills to become agents of change in their own communities.
You can hear more about Glory and other SNHU GEM students about their experiences navigating higher education as refugee learners during our World Refugee Day roundtable event, hosted by SNHU President Paul LeBlanc on Thursday, June 23 at 9 a.m. ET. To register, visit bit.ly/WRDSNHUGEM.
