About WURII.

“With everything I learn I wonder what I can pass to another person.”

It was with this mindset that Claire Mukundente, a refugee who fled Rwanda at age 14, founded Women United for Refugees and Immigrants of Illinois (WURII). Claire arrived in Chicago in August 2000 and has since become a pillar of the Chicago refugee community. After working at a Chicago-based nonprofit for years, she decided to leave and create her own space for women and their families to connect and grow together without the time constraints other agencies face.

“We are different because we don’t have limits for when to help,” Claire said. “We want to make a family. Everybody can feel like they have a family, like they have people around. I don’t want refugees to feel like refugees. I want them to feel like neighbors. I want new neighbors to come!”

From day-to-day tasks like navigating public transportation to more complex processes like applying for college, WURRI aims to connect women of all ages and help guide new arrivals without a predetermined timeline.