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From Displacement to Determination: The Story of Liesse MINDJA OMBENI

From Displacement to Determination: The Story of Liesse MINDJA OMBENI

Founder, SAUPAS Foundation

Before she became the founder of SAUPAS Foundation and co-lead of the RefuWay initiative, Liesse Ombeni was a young Congolese mother rebuilding her life from nothing in Kampala, Uganda.

A Forced Journey

Like thousands of other Congolese families, Liesse was forced to flee her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sought refuge in Uganda in 2015. She arrived with her children and no clear path forward but she carried something no crisis could take from her: resilience.

Learning a Trade, Building a Business

Determined to provide for her family, Liesse enrolled in a six-month tailoring program at a UNHCR-funded community center in Kampala. Not long after completing it, she opened a small tailoring business near her home, turning a newly learned skill into a source of income and independence.

Adapting Through Crisis

When COVID-19 reached Uganda and lockdowns brought her small business to a near standstill, Liesse didn't stop, she adapted. She shifted her tailoring skills toward producing non-medical, washable face masks, working to produce dozens each day so she could keep her children in school and her family afloat during one of the hardest periods refugee communities have faced.

Her story was featured internationally as part of USA for UNHCR's recognition of refugee women who stepped up as everyday heroes during the pandemic response, standing alongside stories of a Venezuelan doctor and a South Sudanese preschool teacher as examples of resilience across the world's displaced communities.

From Survival to Service

What began as a fight to keep her family afloat became the foundation for something larger. Liesse's firsthand experience of displacement, of starting over with nothing but a skill and the will to use it, is the driving force behind SAUPAS Foundation: a refugee-led, women-led organization in Uganda built to give other displaced families the tools, education, and opportunities she once had to find for herself.

Today, as founder of SAUPAS Foundation and co-lead of its RefuWay initiative, Liesse continues the work she started at her sewing machine, not just supporting one family through crisis, but building pathways for entire refugee communities to learn, work, and thrive.

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