Refugees Supporting Refugees: Lyn, Guyana

Many of the hundreds of HIAS staff around the world were once refugees themselves. In our new series Refugees Supporting Refugees, we tell these colleagues’ stories. Read earlier articles in this series here.

Lyn was just eight years old when she got off the plane in Ogle, Guyana as her mother tightly gripped her hand. Everything felt different and scary for them at first — a new language, new food, a completely different culture. But they knew that they had each other to get through any challenge.

“When we arrived in Guyana as refugees, it was really hard,” said Lyn.”There wasn’t any support, there were no NGOs at that time and there were very few people from other countries here.”

This didn’t stop Lyn and her mother from wanting to learn everything about their new home. They listened to their favorite Bob Marley and Michael Jackson songs on repeat until they felt their English improving. Her mother eventually found a steady job, and Lyn enrolled in school. “Now, I feel really proud, and I love telling people all about Guyanese culture,” Lyn said.

Lyn, 29, works as the economic inclusion specialist for HIAS Guyana and dedicates her professional skills to supporting other displaced people. She was the first HIAS employee in Georgetown when the office was established four years ago.

Since then, she has worked her way up, becoming the local expert in entrepreneurship, skills training, and financial management for refugees.

“Being able to support refugees gives me a purpose in life and I feel like this is what I need to be doing,” she said. “Connecting their stories to mine, I want to be the person to hold their hand the way my mother held mine when I first arrived in Guyana.”

Lyn graduated from college with a degree in industrial health and safety and began working for different NGOs. Now, she’s completing a second degree in business management, to improve her business skills and to better support refugee entrepreneurs in her community.

Watching people enter HIAS uncertain about their futures and seeing them leave empowered and hopeful is what keeps Lyn going each day.

“If HIAS had been here when I arrived, we would have been able to access a work permit, English classes, my mum would have been able to perhaps learn a skill, find a job,” Lyn said. “But this motivates me to give to people today what we couldn’t access ourselves.”