Elie Muzungu

I am a Co-Founder and CFO of Rapid Integration and Support Empowerment. My story began in 1996 where I fled the civil and ethnic war from the Central African country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. I lived in a refugee camp for over 15 years where life depended on nonprofit organizations like UNHCR, WFP, ARC and so on. When I arrived in the U.S 15 years ago, I did not take this opportunity for granted that this country has to offer and enabled me to give  back to various communities, especially those who were still resettling. In 2010, I volunteered with Commonwealth Catholic charity in Charlotte, NC. With this organization, we  helped new refugees with different services like interpreting, transportation and employment. Through this organization, it became clear that refugees had limited resources. As CO-Founder and CFO of RISE, I’m confident that investing in our communities by providing different services  like financial assistance towards  self reliance will be the key to success.