Robert is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, now working and permanently residing in Uganda. He received a degree in agriculture from the Catholic University of Bukavu (DRC) in 2007. Following his flight to Uganda, he became the co- founder and the Executive Director of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID). YARID unites urban refugees through sports, English classes, and vocational skills training in order to address social issues like ethnic conflicts, unemployment, public health, and lack of access to education. In 2013 Robert worked as an assistant researcher in Uganda with The Humanitarian Innovation Project (HIP) of the University of Oxford, and YARID in 2016 became the first refugee-led organization to win the $100,000 Ockenden International Prize, which recognizes work promoting the self-reliance of refugees and displaced people.
