People of Dzaleka and its wider community
Innocent Magambi
Also known as Innocent Magambi Ziba
Refugee-rights advocate and founder of There Is Hope, whose work grew from his experience living in Dzaleka and other refugee camps.
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Early life
Innocent Magambi was born in 1972 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Burundian parents who had fled violence. He spent the first 27 years of his life in five refugee camps across four countries. Dzaleka was the last of those camps.
While living in Malawi, Magambi received a scholarship for college education. He has described that opportunity as a turning point that allowed him to move from dependence on emergency assistance toward organising long-term support for other refugees and surrounding communities.
There Is Hope
In 2006, while he was in college, Magambi began the project that became There Is Hope. The organisation developed education, livelihoods, and community programmes serving both refugees in Dzaleka and Malawian host communities.
Advocacy
Magambi later founded Inua Advocacy, building on his experience as a refugee and organisational leader. His public work focuses on refugee rights, policy, self-reliance, and the gap between humanitarian protection and the ability to build an independent life.
References
Sources
- 1A word from our founder
There Is Hope
- 2Our story
Inua Advocacy
- 3Refugees in Malawi: All You Need to Know
Inua Advocacy, December 2024
Related entries
Place
Dzaleka Refugee Camp
A long-established refugee settlement in Dowa District, Malawi, opened in 1994 and now home to a large, multilingual community from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa.
Institution
There Is Hope Malawi
A Malawian non-profit organisation founded from Dzaleka experience that provides vocational education, enterprise support, scholarships, and other self-reliance programmes for refugees and host communities.
Institution
Inua Advocacy
A refugee-rights organisation founded by Innocent Magambi that works on legal assistance, policy reform, accountability, emergency support, and public understanding of refugee life in Malawi.
History
Refugee law and encampment policy in Malawi
The legal and policy framework that shapes residence, movement, education, work, and administration for refugees and asylum-seekers living at Dzaleka.
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