I'm a refugee. My favourite thing about Britain? The weather!

I’ve been told my whole life that my name’s too hard to pronounce, so I’ve got used to saying, “Hi, my name’s Tumi,” not “Hi, my name’s Tumukunde.” But at the same time, am I taking away from my own identity by not introducing myself as me and introducing myself as a nickname? That’s kind of like the mystery, “Oh, who is Tumi?”

My mum and sister and cousins call me Kunde. That’s a really cute nickname. I still love my name. My mum’s Burundian, and she chose my name from my grandma. Tumukunde means: ‘You’re gonna love her.’ 

I feel like the meaning of my name reflects my personality. I’m the type of person who sees someone and I’ll go speak to them, even though I don’t really know them, because I was once in that position. When I came to England, I felt isolated. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to, and my mates chose to come and speak to me. So since I’ve been through it, I want to make an impact on another person’s life.

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I’m 15 now, we’ve been here for 11 years. I remember vivid moments about the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] but because I was only three or four, not a lot. I heard stories from my mum, sister and brother. Because I’m the youngest, I was really confused about why I was moving countries. I’m a kid who’s really buzzing with questions inside of my head. Going on an aeroplane for the first time I was like, “Where am I going? Why am I going here?”

When I came to England, whoa, culture shock! Why are schools like this? Why do people dress like this? Why do they speak like that? The biggest differences were probably the lifestyles and the cultural norms, the fashion. Africa is a really warm continent. I was used to wearing sandals, summer dresses. Then my mates would wear ripped jeans, skinny jeans, crazy.

My favourite thing, I can’t lie, it’s a controversial one: the weather. Also the infrastructure. The manners. The education also. I’ve got so many opportunities to be part of different communities, whether that’s my school, friends, family. In England, I found it really easy to build a community.

I knew bits of English because my siblings were learning English. But at the same time, I only knew, ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’, that’s it. If they were to respond, “My name is…” I would be like, “Huh?” I felt like an alien. Not that they made me feel like an alien. I just felt like I stood out.

As time went on, I didn’t really talk about being a refugee. My mates just knew I moved country. They didn’t know the reason. It was only in high school, when we were doing an English-speaking exam for our GCSE. They were talking about adding anecdotes, and I was like, how about I do it on being a refugee? 

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My mates were really confused, they’d never heard about it. I don’t feel like being a refugee gets talked about enough. It’s like, “Oh, they’ve just left their country because of war.” But the impacts on the person, no matter what age they are, are really, really deep.

A year after that we were watching a movie for Spanish, how war and conflict was presented in Spanish speaking countries. I found it hard to watch because it was as if I was in it.

I asked my teacher if I could do a presentation about my experience of being a refugee. I was scared to do it but the reaction of my classmates was, “Oh, really proud of you.” That was the start of me building up my confidence.

Obviously I did get negative feedback from people who were like, you’re doing it for attention and all that. But they’re not me so they don’t know. I got racial comments said to me. I closed myself up. But because I spoke out about it, I felt like, really more confident.

I know who I am, everyone’s been through their trials and tribulations of life, you gotta hit rock bottom to reach the top, do you get me? In some kind of way, those racial comments kind of empowered me to be the person I am now.

Bolton Lads and Girls Club [Lads for short] allowed me to express myself in many different ways like basketball and dance. Now at my youth club I am a well-known member because I am so enthusiastic. When a new person joins I always make sure they feel like their best self doing what they love to do.

I’m so glad to have met all of my mates from Lads because now I have a really strong and supportive friendship group. They are all different cultures which is really amazing. I love hearing about their cultures and they love hearing about mine.

My future goal is to volunteer in Africa and help children who don’t get the same opportunities as me.

The main thing about being a refugee that showed me I was different, was when I came to England, other people seemed to have their life sort of handed to them. Now I look back and I’m glad I didn’t get everything handed to me on a platter.

Not saying that my mates aren’t hard working – my mates are very hardworking – but my mum had to sacrifice a lot for us, to make me and my siblings happy, let us fulfil our dreams and goals. 

Being a refugee is a challenge but at the same time it’s like a superpower. I’m thankful to be a refugee. When I speak about it, I’m buzzing. My eyes light up. I want people to know that no matter your past, we’re all humans and we shouldn’t label someone just because they’re a refugee, just because they’re Black, white, whatever. 

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