Stories of Refugee Entrepreneurs

Our first spotlight in the video series “From Crisis to Opportunity: Stories of Refugee Entrepreneurs” are Paige and May Anayi. The sisters came to Lansing in 2007 as refugees from Iraq. Fourteen years later, they run a thriving business – Cozy Bear Childcare Home. Learn more about their story and passion to take care of children! Click on their picture to watch their story. 

Our second spotlight in the video series is Farhad Ibrahim. Farhad came from Iraq as a Kurdish Refugee, and has fully embraced his new Lansing home as an entrepreneur and businessman. Running both a cleaning franchise and the Lansing Fish and Meat Market is no small feat – learn how Farhad has navigated through obstacles and pursued opportunities. Click on the picture to watch his story.

Our third spotlight in the video series is Alex Rugurika. As a newly arrived refugee, Alex encountered an obstacle many newcomers face. While grocery shopping for his family, he found it very difficult to find familiar food and ingredients from his home country of Burundi. This experience gave him the idea to open a grocery store providing international foods typically inaccessible to Lansing residents. Now, thanks to Alex and Top Line Food Market, Lansing residents can converse in a familiar language and easily buy food and ingredients like cassava flour, fufu, and Migebuka, a fish imported from Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. Click on the picture to watch his story.