Q&A: NH Songa CEO Jean Hakuzimana

On Wednesday, Nov. 15, NH Songa will be holding a Moving Together Conversations about Immigrants in the Workforce. NH Songa’s CEO Jean Hakuzimana spoke with me about his story coming here from Rwanda and the challenges he faced. Now, he’s helping other immigrants and refugees find a place here in New Hampshire and elsewhere by building trust and helping them integrate into our workforce.

According to NH Songa’s website, the conference’s “attendees will discuss a range of topics from understanding the immigrant community, immigrant talents empowerment, workplace inclusion, DEIJ benefits to the companies, challenges and opportunities in New Hampshire, affirming the contribution of immigrants with facts, state of the state towards immigrants inclusion, policies, and practices to integrate immigrants into the workforce, and the way forward to maintain the momentum.”

With several speakers slated to speak — including James McKim, managing partner of Organizational Ignition; Rob Dapice, executive director/CEO of New Hampshire Housing; Rich Lavers, deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security; among others — the conference is ideal for CEOs, HR staff, employers, service providers, academic institutions, nonprofit organization leaders, staffing agencies, ethnic-based organizations, immigrants, and state and municipality officials to attend.

Q: Can you share more about what it was like when you first came to America?

Jean Hakuzimana, CEO of NH Songa

A: I’m an immigrant, or a new American, born in Rwanda. I’ve been in New Hampshire for the last five years, and basically, that’s where I have been so far.

When I arrived here, I went to find a job. My first job was challenging for me because prior to coming, I was working in different organizations in Africa, and the last one that I did was within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

I was in Chad, which is a country in the north of Africa, and I was their communication specialist. Prior to that, I worked in another organization as a communications expert with a total of ten years plus experience. So, when I arrived here, the first challenge was to find a job. And my mindset was maybe finding another job that looked like the one I used to do. And I was wrong. Very wrong.

I tried with the staffing agency, and I remember the first lady that I met, she asked me my resume, and when she looked at it, she said. Are you able to do some (handyman-type) jobs? And I said yeah, I can, but she told me, I feel because of your resume, maybe you will not be able to do that job. But that gave me an idea of what was waiting for me. So, then I prepared my mind.

I started my first job in a pre-cast-making company for concrete materials. It was very terrifying on the first day. I remember going there in the morning. Of course, you had all the energy because you wanted to have the check. I have a family of four and I need to make sure that they can find food.

When they (new managers) saw me, they asked, ‘Can you measure, can you write?’ I said yes. So, they took me to a special team that was working on designing, measuring, and interpreting blueprints. I was told that they get good money. They were very happy. But the job was tough. You will bend the rebars; you put the rebars on your back, on your shoulder, and you’re going to have to tie them, until you poured concrete on them, just to make sure that you have that final product. So that’s a tough job. I remember going back home and my wife said, ‘Can you eat?’ I said, ‘I’m not even interested in the food. I’m tired.’

I did that for two months almost. Then I started having back pain. I had an accident back in Africa, and I started feeling that pain coming back, so I said, this is not the way to go. I need to shift my thinking. So, I resigned.

One of the memories that I always carry with me is when the supervisor asked me, ‘Do you really understand English?’ I said, yes, I do, but you don’t respond whenever you are working. You’re not socializing with other workers. But what was the issue? The issue was the language that I met. It was swearing, and I don’t swear.

I understand English, but I don’t understand your English. I don’t use your English, so you must bear with me. I’m a Christian. I don’t use that type of language in my vocabulary.

I can do the construction. I was so happy to learn those skills. The first check, in America, was so good. It can be painful, but again, you can bring food to the table, especially when you are an immigrant and when you don’t have enough support that you need in the country.

Q: How did you come to start working with refugees and immigrants?

A: When I left (the construction job), I started looking into health. Where can I go? Probably to be a direct support worker. And I remember picking up the books to run to become a nursing assistant, which I have never thought to be. But I didn’t go with that. However, I went to work at Crotched Mountain.

(It was working in) a house with kids with more tough behaviors, so you need someone who can be there for them in a way that you feel that they are safe. So, I worked in that house for the weekend shift, and I also saw an advert online for a case manager for refugees and they wanted someone who could speak more languages. I can speak five languages, so I applied, and I was given the job.

When I was applying, I realized that maybe it’s a job where you will sit somewhere in an office, bringing back those memories from when I was in Africa and feeling like maybe I’m where I want to be or want to feel comfortable. I started as a community health worker, so I had to travel from Concord to Nashua. I had a community of 33 families. They’ve been here (in the U.S.) for 3 or 4 years, and they need someone to make a service plan to help them bounce back. Among them were the homeless and those who were severely sick. And so, you need to help them to go back to the circle of life.

So how can you help someone get the trust of a landlord and have a house again after being evicted with that record? So, I worked with them for two years and I transitioned to become a case manager within the same organization, but again for refugees and immigrants. So that’s where I spent a chunk of my experience here until recently when the Ukrainians started coming, that’s when I left the job. That time gives me some good memories, (and feelings) as if I have contributed something bigger to society.

Q: What did you do next?

A: In the middle of those two jobs, I enrolled in college for a degree in community development policies and practice. It was a tough combination, working two jobs, taking care of the family, but also doing those credit courses. It was tough. I found it was one way to bounce back or to feel able to contribute again to the community in a meaningful way.

I graduated in 2021, and now I founded NH Songa. I also work with an organization in Maine: called the Ladder to the Moon Network, and they have a publication called Amjambo Africa. My college degree in Rwanda was in journalism, and I’m applying those old skills to help immigrants with information dissemination, to inform them on different issues, and topics, just to make sure that the society in Maine is diversified. They embrace diversity and they are informed about who immigrants are, and what they bring. And again, for immigrants to know where they can knock or they can get jobs, they can get the services they need.

I’m trying to connect (people) both ways. That’s my current role. I’m a deputy editor of the publication.

Q: Does it bring you joy knowing that you’re helping all these people?

A: It does. There is a moment when I was working in Manchester, we were preparing an apartment for six Afghan soldiers who arrived after the Kabul fall. I had two senior citizens who were helping me. They were volunteering with me to hang curtains in the windows. And I asked them, ‘Why are you volunteering? Why do you have that interest?’ And then they looked at me. They said, ‘You know what, Jean? If it was me in their country, I would need more than what they need.’ So that’s why I find the courage to volunteer, to help them, to at least to feel safe and home after the horrible Kabul. So for me, helping people that I know need my support is a great joy that I can experience. I understand how people like me can struggle. It can have an impact on someone’s physical and emotional health.

Q. Do you think there are more resources now to help immigrants, or do we still need to do work in that area to make it easier, more accessible to people who come into the state?

A: I think you can find a gradual improvement. But there is still more to do, especially in New Hampshire. And that’s why I am chipping in with different initiatives to make sure that we have informed citizens. So that we can inform nonimmigrants on how to come out and support Immigrants. The last experience that I really enjoyed was seeing people coming together to form something that was called the Neighborhood Support Team. It is an initiative that I experienced when I was working with Ascentria Care Alliance, we encouraged communities to come together and raise resources if they want just to host an immigrant/refugee in their neighborhood and take care of him as he starts life in New Hampshire. I saw that as an excellent way of making things happen.

I remember taking a family of refugees to Portsmouth, with a neighborhood support team from there. The team came to pick up the family from the airport. We were together that night in their van, and then we put the family in the car. They went straight to Portsmouth. That was excellent. My heart was so happy that night to see the community coming together and putting resources together just to help the family, to feel safe, to feel welcomed. So, they took care of that family until even today.

Q: I was looking at New Hampshire Songa’s website, and it said 6% of the state’s self-employed business owners are immigrants. And I feel like that number should be higher. Is that something that the organization helps with, too?

A: After my experiences as a journalist, case manager and a community worker, plus the skills that I’ve been gaining from the community development graduate courses, I have been working on a theory that the community can drive their destiny. If we empower (immigrants), if we give them the capacity, the resources they need, they can build an impulse for their own development.

I have seen a lot of gaps in the service provision between immigrants and non-immigrants, or different service providers to immigrants. And through those gaps, we can build a coming-together spirit that I call Moving Together Conversations. And people can discuss the way forward.

I’m looking forward to bringing different people in the same room and (having a) debate on a set of topics. That’s why I started with the workforce because I see it as pivotal and the biggest subject that people need to tackle.

I’m looking forward to having employers and immigrants in the same room, policymakers, and people from academia, just to debate on what is the best way to integrate or to have immigrants in the workforce in New Hampshire. And how can we do better? What are the best practices that we can share to help this be beneficial to both sides? That’s the angle that I want to take with Immigrants in New Hampshire’s Workforce conference.

But also, I’m hoping to hear in these conversations about owning a business, because you can help immigrants build the business, but also become employers for other immigrants and the whole population. Therefore, they need to know where to get resources, how can they be informed in a manner that they understand? Because to start a business, you don’t need to understand English. You need to have a business idea.

Those are the conversations that I want to bring into the room to empower both sides. Because whenever you empower one side and you leave another side, the balance is not balancing. So, you need to empower both sides in terms of skills and learning.

For example, the first session of the conference is— called “Understanding immigrants in New Hampshire” — the idea was when you chat with people around you, many can’t even define what type of immigrants we have in New Hampshire. Some will say: “It’s just those guys who are coming”. You don’t know why they come. You barely know their skills, or their culture, and you don’t even have the curiosity to know what they can bring. It is by understanding who someone is that I can start trusting them.

I want people in the room to learn who the immigrants are in New Hampshire, and how and where they come from, so it will be moderated by the refugee resettlement agencies. We also have people who come through other channels like visas, green cards, and the asylum process. We just need to understand all that sitting in the room.

The second session will be to debate the contribution of immigrants to the state’s economy so that one will be about numbers, facts, and figures. When people stop believing in facts, they start believing in nonsense: Facts can change biases and preconceived notions.

The third session is about a debate between employers and immigrants and problem-solving challenges. What are the problems you met when you arrived at your workplace at your first job? What you wish could be done better and the CEO can say, ‘When I started hiring immigrants, this is what happened. This is how it went.’ And I’m expecting employers who are courageous to say when we (hired immigrants) we had profit, we boomed. I want that testimony in the room. Just to encourage other CEOs, and other human resource personnel, to embrace the recruitment of immigrants.

The fourth session is about diversity, equity, and inclusion benefits. James McKim, who is very well-known, will moderate the session to remind the employers; that if they embrace this, it can be profitable. If they don’t, they can lose as well.

Then, at the end of the conference, we will be asking what we can do. How can we build an inclusive workforce? I’m expecting the policymakers to be on that last session to just take notes or talk about the policies in place so that people can say, ‘This is good, this is bad, I can improve this.’

Q: What other challenges or hurdles do you think other immigrants have to overcome when they come into the state that you think other people should know about, so that hopefully we can help create a solution together?

A: I’m trying to go with the workforce, but it goes everywhere. You must be trusted to work. That’s an issue. And you also need to explain who you are and where you come from. But I understand others’ concerns. They might want to know basically why you have a neighbor who doesn’t look like you. So, you always need to explain it, and sometimes, why did you come? And that can be embarrassing sometimes.

People come with skills that can be transitioned into dreams, that’s a challenge. It’s a huge challenge. When I came (to the U.S.), I felt that maybe I could do a communication job. I can do a journalism job. But nobody could have trusted me. No way. That’s a challenge as well. We have nurses who have been working seven days in the block somewhere in Asia or in Africa: But you can’t trust them with your body; you need them to have learnt in America- which is for them to do double training.

But in the long run, there is a debate in many states where they want to let, for example, foreign physicians practice: “We studied in books written in America” one doctor from Africa told me one day. Immigrants can be less experienced in terms of sophisticated materials or equipment, but the science is the same. Some people need just a tiny internship or apprenticeship just to start working and help the needy health sector. But it’s complicated to be a physician here. So, I understand it’s a challenge.

I recently appeared at the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire immigration series, and their executive director asked me, ‘What is the great challenge that you see with NH community vs immigrants?’ And I said, ‘People are so nice here. Good people, good neighbors, and very peaceful ones. But they need a little bit to be informed about immigrants or migration.’

I want people just to make a tiny effort to learn, just to learn even those who work in the education sector. Why do people come here? What do they need for support that can help the community to give more in accommodating new Americans.

In education, in health, and other many sectors; We need to make extra effort to innovate the way we have new people in our neighborhood, in our schools, in our hospitals, and in our workplaces, just to accommodate them. I’m sure most of the people who came (into the country), survived a lot. They are resilient. They are ready to contribute. They are very disciplined in many ways because they are living a second chance in many ways. So, let’s make a place for them.