Refugee Week: Entrepreneurs share their stories

The stories of refugee entrepreneurs have been highlighted in a social media campaign by two groups for Refugee Week.

The collection of portraits have been created by Open Britain, a campaign group, and non-profit organisation The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN).

They showcase people who have used their skills or developed new ones as entrepreneurs after escaping conflict and danger in their homeland.

Those who’ve taken part in the campaign include a former bubble show artist, potter and chef.

Akbar Majidova, a chef originally from Uzbekistan, has built a culinary career in the UK.

Together with his wife Sanobar, he runs the restaurant called A Taste of Samarkand.

Their goal is to promote their food and contribute to society, specifically in areas such as education, arts, music, and supporting women and children in their home country.

Husband and wife Oksana and Oleksii Chaiun met while working for an electrical retailer in Ukraine.

Ms Chaiun came to the UK with her 18-month-old and 14-year-old three months after the Russian invasion.

She was separated from her husband for more than a year and a half.

Mr Chaiun started working with a friend’s woodwork factory while he was still in Ukraine and showed his wife some oak homeware prototypes.

In 2023 Ms Chaiun visited her husband in Ukraine and returned with some of their lights and they sold out immediately.

Their business is now developing.

Max came to the UK in 2015 as a refugee, and it took him five years to get asylum status.

He said he experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and would have nightmares about his persecution.

He put up Union Jack Flags with signs in his government-sponsored room.

They read: “I am safe”, and “this is not real” to help him when he woke up.

He received support through a photography workshop called Photo Nomad which Max said turned “his life from darkness to light”.

He has now started started his own business called Payanam.

He is working with TERN “to create a platform to help as many refugees as possible to heal from their difficulties through photography and art and feeling part of a community”.

Payanam will be funded by donations and through sharing the proceeds of selling the refugees’ artwork as well as selling its own merchandise.

In April 2022, Olena Nesterenko came to the UK from Ukraine when the war began.

She said she came with her “two daughters, a small bag and a few documents” under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

She gained a job as a teaching assistant, but had previously been a bubble show artist.

She decided to begin bubble shows again, and said: “When I perform now, I still have this special feeling – if I am in a bad mood, have bad feelings, or feel unwell, everything passes immediately.”

Razieh Riazati founded ceramics brand, Raaz Pottery, in the UK after she left Iran.

In her home country she had worked in an orphanage and taught children pottery.

She has continued to teach pottery in the UK and works with TERN to sell her art. where she worked in an orphanage in Iran teaching children pottery.

She said: “Migration is not easy. Even the simple things must change – our habits and previous lifestyle.”

Veronika Shmorhun lived in Kyiv until the Russians invaded, and was studying for her MA in Graphic Design as well as studying fashion design.

She lived for two weeks under Russian occupation before she evacuated through Poland to get a flight to London in April 2022.

She started to paint – her primary subject is nature, inspired by both the bombing, burnt grain fields and broken trees.

She has had four exhibitions in under two years, including a group show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Meanwhile she has made the headdress and black outfit pictured above – her modern tribute to her homeland and national dress.

Veronika works with TERN to develop her profile as an artist, as well as developing a career as a compositor in film post-production.

Vladimir Kolodin was unable to be openly gay in Kazakstan.

In 2016 he was forced to give up his life and flee to the UK.

In Kazakstan he had done a PhD in Psychology, and played instruments as a hobby before he found work as a clinical psychologist.

In the UK, a lack of recognition of Mr Kolodin’s Kazak qualifications limited the work he could do.

He continued to play and learn new instruments and recognised he could combine his passion for supporting people’s mental health with his love for music.

He founded Faerie Mystic which uses a blend of acoustic, indigenous instruments and different spiritual traditions to create transcendental music.

He is working with TERN to develop his vision for Faerie Mystic and hopes to create a festival and a space for community building.

Yeukai Taruvinga was born in Zimbabwe and fled to the UK due to political unrest in the country more than 10 years ago.

She spent nine years in the asylum system.

She now leads Active Horizons, a youth-led organization empowering migrant and refugee young people in London.

She also runs Shumba Boutique, and creates African clothing.