Mayele Jules - Cofounder, Executive Director

Jules is a Congolese by nationality, a refugee in Uganda since 2011. He currently serves as the Executive Director. He completed his studies at Kampala University with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management, with minors in public administration and social policy.
He was born and raised in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This region was suffering from ongoing tribal violence and security instability was always increasing. Life was getting impossible there. In 2011, his family members were killed and were forced to leave and flee to Uganda.
With a shared vision with Jeremiah Lukeka, he co-founded Solidarity Eden Foundation in 2015. Founding Solidarity Eden Foundation was really the result of the great passion he had developed for community development and ostracized refugees. So many refugees face great challenges when they arrive in Uganda, after having been through traumatic experiences in their home country, adjusting to completely new and different cultural practices. That is not an easy transition; refugees must deal with language barriers, unemployment, difficult access to formal school, and discrimination from the local communities.

Overall, Jules is an ambitious, diligent, methodical, and easy-going person. He loves storytelling, supporting community initiatives as well as graphic design. He is also a loyal fan supporter of Manchester United and loves playing FIFA and listening to music in his free time.

Jeremiah Lukeka - Founder, Operations Director

Jeremiah is a refugee in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2008, holding a Bachelor Degree in Public Administrations, a certified Mastermind Coach (John C Maxwell Team) and a Certified Christian Leadership Edge Mentor from the Watoto Christian Hall.
Being a refugee who had faced a lot of challenging moments in his early years in Uganda, he identified a need for refugees to have a place where they could overcome language barrier, build their social capital and learn some entrepreneurial skills that would promote self-reliance. In 2015 he founded the Solidarity Eden Foundation. He currently serves as our Founder, and Operations Director.
Jeremiah strives to empower refugees, seeing refugees who were considered as nothing or thought of themselves as nothing, go on to do so much, discover their potential and life purpose. He is passionate about seeing refugees rise to influence and transform their communities. Over the years Jeremiah has mentored a lot of young refugee leaders by using the approach of transforming followers to leaders and leaders to catalysts of change.
His drive is inspired around helping fellow refugees to understand that being a refugee is not the end of life but an opportunity to a new beginning.
The hope to dream again, even if ever

Odia Mudahama - Creative Arts Officer

Odia is a refugee in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2015. She completed her high school at Mennonites Institute in Kinshasa, DRC. She is also a graduate of Jesuit Refugee Service, JRS in Arts and Craft.
She has worked with Solidarity Eden Foundation since 2017, where she started as a volunteer in our Music Department, and currently, she serves as our Creative Officer where she oversees the Creative Arts Program. She enjoys meeting people from different spheres and cultures very much. And working with Solidarity Eden Foundation is such a great opportunity for her to make a positive impact in someone’s life, whether it is teaching how to make attractive crafts, beautiful hairdressing styles, or singing.
Odia is very talented and is always filled with positivity. Her presence is so much felt by those around her through her singing and playing musical instruments at our refugee resource center. In her free time, she enjoys singing, socializing with people, and learning new styles that she can incorporate in her vocational training sessions when she meets up with participants at our center.
She is also the tallest member of her family, so all her younger siblings have someone they can look up to at least whenever they need some inspirational singing and fun stories.

Jacques Mwisa - M&E Manager

Jacques, an alumnus from our program, class of 2017 is a refugee in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2016. Jacques has held various positions since joining us in 2018. He has served as a Business and English Class Instructor and currently our Monitoring and Evaluation Manager.
Jacques is a very tech guy who recently graduated from Makerere University CEDAT with a certificate in Computer Engineering on top of his other honors from CISCO, MIKROTIK, and UpTech Uganda. He is also multilingual, with at least 5 languages.
Jacques is a very open-minded person, in his free time he loves playing chess, given it offers him the opportunity to focus and relax at the same time.
As a refugee and program alumni, Jacques enjoys the commitment and effort refugees at our center put into everything they do; seeking to improve themselves on various challenges that can be on their table. And overall, for him getting this opportunity to help others is all that matters.

Benjamin Oumo - Instructor

Benjamin is a Ugandan by nationality, currently serving as an English Instructor. He completed his studies at Kyambogo University, with a Bachelor's Degree in Information and Communication Technology.
Benjamin has been with us since January 2021 and has held a very strong connection with refugees. Benjamin is very social, flexible, always ready to learn new things, and above all the fear of God which greatly contributes to his diligence in doing his work.
As a Ugandan national, working with refugees provides him a great opportunity to socialize, the aspect of getting to know their different cultures and practices, offering exchange opportunities, and the chance to try new things outside Ugandan cultures.
Regarding hobbies, Benjamin spends his free time on research and reading the news. He believes these things keep him at level with changes about his career and besides, this aids him in discovering the latest changes both in technology, education, and information systems.

Kimono Miria - Women's Program Manager

Miria originally comes from Mbale in Eastern Uganda, she completed her studies with a degree in Fashion and Textile Design at Nkumba University and is currently serving as our Women’s Program Manager.
In her role, she oversees our women's vocational training such as tailoring, business, and entrepreneurship and also guidance and counseling since joining us in mid-2020.
Miria spends most of her time talking to refugee women including single mothers at our program, connecting them with different services in our Nsambya community as also pushing them to be creative to cope with this demanding environment.
She is a very kind person and can easily associate with others, she also enjoys fixing things around, multitasking which brings some pressure for her. In her words, without this pressure, it will always be late to realize how fast needs are changing.
Her favorite hobby is art and traveling to new places since it offers her the opportunity to explore nature’s beauty and get to see the world in different life settings.

Cynthia Alcy - Communications Fellow

BIO COMING SOON

Julson Kayuyu - Instructor, M&E Associate

Julson, a program alumnus and refugee in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo joined our program as an English learner in 2018. He left DRC as a result of insecurity in his region. He completed his high school with a diploma in Social Studies at Fidelite de Force Goma in 2017.
Julson is our new alumnus joining our staff team. He is currently serving as a part time Music Instructor and M&E Associate. He is a very well known artist locally with his guitar and other music instrumentals both in the Congolese refugee and Ugandan communities. His abilities on the instrument are incredibly amazing, ranging from piano, solo and acoustic guitar. He is also a vocal coach and serves as a choir leader in his local church.
Julson is already an inspiring young leader and his incredible music skills have motivated so many refugees including those at our refugee resource center. His favourite hobby is also playing sports, especially football.