“I’m in a better position now to get a job”: A step closer to employment thanks to NILS

Benoit loves to actively contribute to his local community, but as an asylum seeker has not been allowed to work. Thanks to the No Interest Loan Scheme, he recently returned to study and is preparing to enter employment in Ireland.

Benoit Mboudou is a busy young man. Currently residing in Limerick, he spends his days volunteering at a homeless service, fixing bicycles at a community centre, supervising homework for schoolchildren and helping Leaving Cert students prepare for French oral exams.

He is clearly contributing a lot to his community but there is much more Benoit would like to do, and top of the list is getting a job. Having arrived in Ireland from Cameroon almost six years as an asylum seeker, he is still waiting for protected status. Up until recently he was forbidden to work – though the law is now changing to allow applicants to access employment.

“Doing voluntary work is good for the mind, and it helps me to make friends,” he explains. “As an asylum seeker you are by yourself. Your family calls you from home asking you to send some money, but you don’t have a job or money. It’s very complicated, very frustrating. I deal with my frustration by trying to make a contribution.”

As someone who thrives on being active, Benoit was anxious to keep his mind busy and prepare for the jobs market. He found a suitable computer course at Pery Square Business College, but didn’t have an income to pay the €400 course fees. It was then that he heard about the Microfinance Programme operated by Good Shepherd Ireland, and applied for a loan under the No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS).

“My first impression was that the course was expensive, but Kate [in GSI] took time to explain everything and made it easy. It is very simple to apply, and you only need to wait two or three weeks. You pay the money back but it is small payments, over a long period of time. It is very flexible,” he explains.

“NILS is wonderful. It is a great opportunity for asylum seekers who don’t have money for a course, or for people who don’t have a big income – there is no discrimination.”

Having completed the 40-hour course, which covered everything from Microsoft Word and Excel to preparing PowerPoint presentations, Benoit feels it will give him an advantage when it comes to finding employment: “You need computers for everything, it is essential. I feel the course is security for me, I’m in a better position now to get a job.”

In Cameroon Benoit ran his own business, but when he left his home country he lost everything. “I used to travel a lot. When you are an asylum seeker you have lost a lot of opportunities, everything has been taken away, you are not a businessman any more. Five years is too long. You lose spirit.”

As he awaits news on his application, Benoit is busy helping out wherever he can while making plans for his future. His goal is eventually to set up his own business here in Ireland.

“I would like to do a business management course, and in the future I would like to create my own enterprise here. A lot of people here like to eat organic products –go to Africa, it’s all natural! I would like to run a business supplying only natural products.

“The new law giving authorisation to asylum seekers to work will make a difference. But it is good to do training first; if you don’t have training here, how can you look for a job?”

Other Journals

Become a NILS Referral Partner

At Good Shepherd Ireland we operate the NILS programme through a model of partnership.
We partner with client-facing, like-minded, local organisations to ensure we can reach those in financial crisis.

When a household appliance breaks it usually needs to be replaced immediately, but finding the money to pay for it can be a struggle. When it happens just before Christmas, the financial pressure can be even more intense. The No Interest Loan Scheme is there to help people tackle those unexpected expenses.

Bumps on the Journey

Just over a year ago, Delia was faced with a dilemma. She had damaged her car, and had been quoted over €600 to fix it. Postponing the repairs wasn’t an option as she needed transport for school runs. But she didn’t have the money to meet such a large expense, and felt she had nowhere to turn.

Sustainable Living, from Congo to Limerick

Sowing seeds of hope: How NILS helped Maurice to develop vegetable garden project

On a farm outside Limerick, Maurice and a team of volunteers are teaching young people how to grow African vegetables for the local community. The No Interest Loan Scheme was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.

“He will have a diploma. She will have a diploma.”

“Il aura un diplôme. Elle aura un diplôme,” chant the children of the Bon Pasteur School in Domaine Marial, a settlement at the edge of the mining town Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The thought that even a single boy or girl in this settlement might one day earn a school diploma is not something that would not have been considered possible a few years earlier.

Two new businesses help Dropati find her own voice

Dropati is a housewife living in the rural village of Khursipar in Madhya Pradesh in central India. When Dropati first married, the management of the family’s two-acres of land was left entirely to her husband. Over the last year, Dropati has taken on a more active role, starting two new businesses, building a new home and finding her own voice.

“Thank God we are together again” – The path to Ireland for one Syrian family

It is a typical school scene: a group of children sit in a classroom, several more play football outside, a few lucky ones are having fun on the swings and seesaw in the playground. Over the roof of the building are the words ‘My school’ and on the other side of the picture is written a single word: ‘Welcome’. A Syrian flag flies above the school, while a backdrop of mountains, birds and fruit trees suggest an idyllic valley setting.

Sharing Success in a Dairy Cooperative

Jayasri and her family – her husband, two children and parents-inn-law – are landless. Because they have no land of their own to farm, the family is entirely dependent on the irregular wages they earn as agricultural day labourers and selling the milk from their buffalo cow.

Economic Independence Helps Reduce Violence Against Women

The women of Domaine Marial are sewing a bright new garment. Many hands hold down the colourful fabric as one of the women irons a straight new seam.
They are part of a women’s economic empowerment project run by Good Shepherd at their training centre on the outskirts of Kolwezi, a town in the southern-most province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“When you have passion for something it is not difficult”: How NILS helped Champion follow his dreams

Champion is passionate about planes and recently undertook an introductory course in Aviation Engineering, thanks to the No Interest Loan Scheme. It was an important stepping stone for him as he builds his career and life in Ireland.