Would you buy a house for your parents? These two young brothers did, after growing up in refugee camps

After a lifetime of living in refugee camps, two brothers have gifted their parents the Australian dream of property ownership.

Life for brothers Irimaso Dieu Merci and Irunva Vincent began in a refugee camp in Rwanda. 

There, alongside four other siblings, they lived with their Congolese parents, with a dream of one day feeling safe and comfortable in a permanent home.

“The life of a refugee and to be in a camp is a struggle and very hard for everything,” says Vincent, 26. 

While plenty of support existed in the camps, Vincent explains it was always the bare minimum, and all they could do was dream of a better life.

That opportunity came in July 2019. The family was living in another refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees finished the paperwork to let them start a new life in Townsville, Queensland.

“Once we got to Australia, our lives changed,” says Merci, 20. “We could go to school. We had more opportunities. My brother went to work. My parents went to study [English].”

Vincent adds that they feel safe and happy. “We started thinking if we could do even better because before it was always distress. It was our dream now, when we got to Australia, we have got to have our own house.”

However, it wasn’t smooth sailing, Merci says. All of them had to face the hurdles of being in a new country, culture, and language, and it took a while to get used to. Merci went to high school with his younger brother, while everyone else went to TAFE to become fluent in English.

It was in high school that Merci learnt the endless opportunities that came with living in Australia, particularly the dream of property ownership, which seemed an impossibility in a refugee’s life. 

“Because my younger brother went to high school, he had more information than us,” says Vincent. 

“He saw something was possible, and he’d say, ‘You know we can buy a house?’ and I said, ‘Really?’ and he said, ‘We can do this and do this,’ and I went, ‘Oh whoa, that’s good.’”

So, after Merci graduated in 2021 and began working in the same steel company as Vincent, they decided to buy a house for their family.

In secret, they started saving up together for a deposit, and within 12 months they had enough money for a 40 per cent deposit on their first home. 

“To save up, you don’t do something like get beers. We don’t need to go out,” says Vincent. “Since arriving in Australia, I’ve never travelled anywhere. I’ve never gone to Brisbane. I never went anywhere to ensure we saved [enough for a deposit].”

Merci adds, “During break [at work], I’d always go on the internet and check new homes on sale.”

The brothers later approached local agent Julie Goddard of Explore Property to inquire about a listing that caught their interest, and that would later become their new home. 

Goddard says she was later rung by a lender from a local Commonwealth Bank asking her to help the boys out because some agencies did not believe they were legitimate buyers. 

Merci says since he and his brother were so young-looking, people didn’t believe that they had the money to purchase property.

“I’d spoken to them a few times and took them seriously straight away,” Goddard says. 

“[They] were so enthusiastic, you know, looking at the home and joking and smiling and saying how it was even better than they saw online, and they were very excited. And so I spoke with them later that day and obviously went back and forth, and they were the buyer.”

Goddard thought the brothers were buying the house for themselves at the time, but when she asked who would be taking the main bedroom, they revealed their plan. 

“I said, ‘Now boys, which one of you is going to get this room?’ and they both giggled and said, ‘Oh, no no no, this will be for our parents … We’re surprising our parents. We will live here until we save for the next house, but this house is for our parents,” she says.

“I just melted. It was so beautiful.”

On settlement day, the brothers picked up their parents – who had just spent a year in Cairns to be near the African community and improve their English – on the pretence that they were all visiting some friends at a party.

The secret was unveiled when they drove up to the driveway of the property in the Townsville suburb of Condon.

Their parents, Hitamana Gato and Alice Mureshyakwano, were in tears as all of them stood in front of their new home as Merci and Vicent announced, “This is all yours.”

“They were surprised to see it was their new home,” says Merci.

Now, the family is together again, in a home they can call their own – for the first time ever in their lives. 

“We’re just excited because we’ve never owned a house before,” says Merci.