Title: “The Coffee Corner”
In Nakivale, where every sunrise brings a new struggle and a new hope, Hakim, a 24-year-old refugee from Burundi, had one dream: to build something that would last.
Back home, his father ran a small café in Bujumbura—nothing fancy, just coffee, chapati, laughter, and radio music. When conflict forced Hakim and his younger sister to flee, that café was left behind like so much else. But the scent of roasted beans? That stayed with him.
When he arrived in Nakivale, he noticed something odd: hundreds of people, from dozens of countries, sitting outside homes, talking, waiting, hoping—but no place to gather. No place that felt like a community corner.
So he made a plan.
With just 30,000 UGX (less than $10), Hakim bought a charcoal stove, a kettle, and a kilo of cheap ground coffee. He borrowed a neighbor’s bench and painted an old wooden sign that read:
“Karibu – Coffee Corner”
At first, people laughed. “Who drinks coffee in a refugee camp?” they said.
But on the third day, one Congolese woman stopped for a cup. Then a Rwandan man. Then a Somali teenager who just liked the vibe. Within two weeks, he was making enough to feed his sister breakfast and save a little.
With every cup, he reinvested. He added ginger tea. Then mandazi. Eventually, he strung up a tarp to protect customers from the rain, and printed a laminated menu. He played soft music from his old phone and kept a tiny notebook for credit—“Pay when you can,” he’d say.
One day, a visiting NGO staffer stopped by. She sipped her coffee, smiled, and said:
“Hakim, this feels like Nairobi.”
Months later, she returned—with a donated espresso machine, and a pitch:
“We want to feature you in a refugee entrepreneurs’ showcase.”
Now, Coffee Corner is a Nakivale landmark. It’s where youth meet to talk business ideas, where mothers stop by after market, where travelers rest their feet and find a moment of normal.
Hakim trains other young refugees on how to start lean, market with heart, and serve with consistency.
His favorite quote, scribbled in chalk on a board near the entrance?
“We didn’t come here to wait. We came to rise.”
