Magid Osman Merih was among thousands of guests present at Al-Saba’een Garden in the summer of 2010, when Yemen hosted that year’s Sana’a Festival, a monthlong cultural and tourism event celebrating the country’s rich heritage, handicrafts, and folklore. Osman had earned his place at the event after topping his class at a local university in Sudan, where he was studying medicine.
Like most young people, Osman dreamt of a beautiful future. In his eyes, life had taken off smoothly.
But exactly two months after returning home, his life ran into a headwind. Sudan had been plunged into conflict, forcing people in the Nuba Mountains to flee for their safety. The following year, in 2011, Osman found himself in South Sudan as a refugee.
“The reason why we are here is because of the war that took place in Nuba Mountain in January 2011,” Osman said, reflecting on his traumatic past. “Things were very difficult for us in South Sudan because it was a new place.” Armed with university education, Osman knew he needed to find a way to survive the difficult times. The following year, he enrolled for a six-month course in Kampala. Upon completion, he returned to South Sudan, where he started a grocery store.
But even there, he didn’t last. “My shop was destroyed in a road expansion exercise and that forced me to take up work in construction sites. I’ve been in construction since then,” revealed Osman, now a managing partner at Arangton Construction Company in Juba.
Osman’s entrepreneurial journey did not stop there. Seven months ago, he stretched his business tentacles by founding Vitality Life Care Medical Center, one of the few hospitals in Juba offering 24-hour healthcare services.
“I wanted to play a role in the South Sudan health sector because many people are suffering from common diseases like malaria and typhoid,” he added.
Today, Osman employs 19 staff, including four doctors, most of whom come from local and host communities.
Free from aid dependency
While refugees are often viewed as a “burden” in their host countries, in South Sudan, some are rewriting the narrative by contributing to the local economy.
Kwarkuch Ojulla Dingech lives at Gorom Refugee Settlement on the outskirts of Juba.
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Just like Osman, she has been in South Sudan since 2011.
Dingech arrived with painful memories of conflict that forced her to flee her home in Ethiopia. The first few months were agonizing. She battled memories of gunfire and long nights trekking through bushes, a situation worsened by the lack of psychological support in her new environment.
At Gorom, like many refugee settlements, survival requires resilience. With limited access to basic services, including running water and proper sanitation, Dingech found therapy through walking and talking to people around her.
One day, while on a walk — her way of escaping boredom — she came across a group of women making beaded artifacts.
“It was hard because I came from war and my mind was full of stress,” said 29-year-old Dingech while holding a few beads on her hand. “For me to break the boredom, I would visit this group of women who were making these beads and sit there the whole day, watching them do the work as I passed time. I later asked if I could join them, and that’s how I started learning how to make beads for myself.” Today, Dingech’s artworks, alongside those of a group comprising refugees from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the DRC, have been sold as far as Kenya and India. At the last Africa Forum on Displacement, held in Nairobi, refugees sold more than 2,000 beaded lanyards. The lanyards were used by every one at the forum.
“Refugees are not only beneficiaries of assistance. They are entrepreneurs, investors,
employers, and contributors to local economic growth,” said Mesfin Degefu, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) deputy representative in South Sudan.
Through the sale of beads, Dingech said she has freed herself from the traditional aid dependency associated with many refugees. “When we get the money from the sales of our artifacts, we can afford to pay hospital bills and also buy clothes. My family is happy now. When we are receiving the cash from this work, it helps a lot. That wasn’t the case before. Now I can buy food and pay for my hospital bills without much stress.”
South Sudan currently hosts more than 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers while also responding to the arrival of more than 1.3 million people fleeing conflict in neighbouring Sudan, according to UNHCR.
Most of these people are skilled labourers, but they have limited opportunities due to their refugee status. Across Africa, more than 44 million forcibly displaced people remain on the margins of financial systems, according to Inkomoko,, a social enterprise supporting displaced communities through affordable capital, business advisory services, and market access.
In South Sudan specifically, starting businesses has not been easy for many refugees.
“Refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons] face several barriers,” said William Ngabonziza, the organization’s managing director in South Sudan. “No bank trusts them because they don’t have anything to present to get access to loans. So we ensure that we give them skills and loans and then we link them to markets as well as advocate [for] them for [a] conducive business environment.”
Access to financing
In 2012, South Sudan enacted a Refugee Act granting asylum seekers labour rights, access to employment, and documentation, including refugee ID cards and Convention Travel Documents.
However, for many refugees, access to credit remains limited while economic systems rarely adapt to their realities.
“When barriers are removed and opportunities are created, refugees and host communities can thrive together,” noted Degefu
This is a position supported by the South Sudan government. “Refugees are not just people fleeing the conflicts, but are people with skills and knowledge and have the potential. So let’s have refugees integrated into our system so that we can benefit as a country from their presence here,” said John Dabi, South Sudan’s Deputy Commissioner for Refugee Affairs.
Despite the challenges, Osman remains hopeful about the future. “In three to four years, we will have a big hospital in South Sudan. We want to expand to states where we’ll be able to serve not just the community but also other refugees,” Osman said.
At their clinic, Osman explained they have developed a fair payment plan that is inclusive and tailored to market demands. “Some of our clients are refugees and we know that they don’t have money. So we allow for payment in installments. When a client comes in and he doesn’t have the full amount, we first administer treatment, then they can come and settle the balance later.”
Back in Gorom, Dingech hopes other refugees will join in building not only a future for themselves but also forSouth Sudan, a place she has called home for the last 13 years. “I know how painful it is to live as a refugee. But I need other refugees to learn a skill. That will be their contribution in helping the host country.”
Osman hopes for a safe world where his children will go to school and use their knowledge to “help society.”
“That is what I wish [for] them,” he added. “And I also don’t want them to suffer because of the war to run from country to country. Being a refugee is just a temporary state. As long as you have hope, you can start anywhere. And as long as you are doing something, you can change your life.”.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the early August 2026 print edition of Amjambo Africa.
