Emmanuel Uwayezi fled Rwanda in 1992 when he nine years old. He spent over twenty years as a refugee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Kenya before he was resettled in Tucson in 2016. Emmanuel works as a case manager at International Rescue Committee (IRC), Tucson. When he came to Tucson he saw how people who arrived as refugees were struggling and was determined to make a difference using music which, he says, is “a language everyone understands.” He organizes a band with teens and young adults from different African countries who also came to Tucson as refugees. Emmanuel believes in the power of music to uplift and empower.