SIM Alumni

Rya Kuewor

Co-Founder & CEO, RIO

Rya is a refugee education and integration consultant with 6 years experience working in higher and marginalised education in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Singapore and Kenya, and 4 years of working on refugee education with a special focus on economic and social integration. He has worked with the Ghana Refugee Board through the Open University of West Africa, and also with a mobile education company in building and delivering entrepreneurship and healthcare courses to micro-entrepreneurs and secluded communities. Rya has researched refugee social and economic integration in the Krisan, Ampain, and Dadaab refugee camps.

Today, he runs RIO (Refugee Integration Organisation) in Ghana and Brazil, working with refugees, Internally Displaced People (IDPs), and Persons of Concern (PoCs). RIO provides people with entrepreneurship training, business incubation, and personalised mentorships. The work promotes social inclusion and economic independence for refugees, IDPs, and PoCs in Africa and South America.

His passion for his work stems from him having been homeless once, and never having been formally educated. Rya speaks 9 local and International languages, is a TEDx Speaker, a Yunus and Youth, Cordes and Amani Institute Fellow.