When Stella Wamaitha Njoroge arrived in Dubai in February 2020, she was 23 years old and hopeful about what lay ahead.
The Kenyan woman had travelled to the United Arab Emirates expecting to find work within weeks and begin building a new life in a city known for attracting people from around the world.
Instead, the biggest global disruption in generations arrived almost immediately after she did.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought businesses, travel and everyday life to a standstill. For Njoroge, who was still trying to establish herself in a new country, the consequences were especially difficult.
Her savings began disappearing.
Then she reached a point where she could no longer afford her rent.
What happened next, according to Njoroge, would become one of the most important experiences of her life in Dubai.
She arrived in Dubai just before the pandemic
Njoroge’s timing could hardly have been more challenging.
The UAE began introducing extensive measures to contain COVID-19 in March 2020. According to the UAE government’s official account of its pandemic response, schools and higher education institutions were closed, distance learning was introduced, shopping centres and entertainment destinations were temporarily closed, new visas were suspended and restrictions were placed on air travel.
The government also introduced measures affecting foreign residents whose visas or work permits were expiring during the disruption. Some residents and visitors received extensions as authorities attempted to deal with the consequences of suspended air traffic and the wider pandemic emergency. (UAE government)
For someone who had arrived only weeks earlier, finding employment in that environment was far more difficult than she had anticipated.
Njoroge later told Emirates 24|7 that she struggled to find work during the lockdown and eventually ran out of money.
Her immediate problem was no longer simply finding a job.
It was keeping a roof over her head.
The conversation she was afraid to have
Njoroge said she became increasingly anxious as her savings disappeared.
Eventually, she had to confront a situation many expatriates fear when living away from home: she could no longer afford her accommodation.
She said she finally gathered the courage to tell her Lebanese landlord that she would not be able to pay the rent and would have to leave.
She had nowhere else to go.
But according to Njoroge, the landlord did not ask her to leave.
Instead, he allowed her to remain in the apartment without paying rent.
For three months, she said, she was able to stay there without paying a dirham.
The decision gave her something she desperately needed at the time: stability.
More importantly, Njoroge says it changed the way she felt about being alone in a foreign country.
In her account to Emirates 24|7, she said that at 23, living abroad during an unprecedented crisis, she felt “seen, supported, and protected.” (Emirates 24|7)
The landlord’s identity was not disclosed in that published account, and the details of the arrangement have not been independently documented in public records. The three-month rent-free period therefore remains Njoroge’s account of what happened.
But for her, the meaning of the experience has never depended simply on the amount of money involved.
She tried to repay him
As her circumstances eventually improved, Njoroge said she tried to repay the landlord.
He refused.
Instead, she said, he told her to pass the kindness on to somebody else who needed help.
That advice stayed with her.
The experience gave Njoroge a different perspective on what it meant to build a life in a country far from home.
She had arrived expecting to find employment and establish herself independently.
The pandemic instead showed her how vulnerable a person could become when circumstances suddenly changed.
It also showed her how much difference one person’s decision could make.
Njoroge later described the experience as something that changed her completely.
Rather than treating the landlord’s generosity as a debt that could only be settled financially, she began thinking about kindness as something that could be transferred from one person to another.
From a young newcomer to a business adviser
Njoroge eventually managed to build a career in Dubai.
Today, her professional profile describes her as a business setup consultant and UAE visa specialist with more than five years of experience. Her work involves helping people establish businesses and navigate aspects of the UAE’s immigration and business environment. (Stella Wamaitha’s professional profile)
The work has particular relevance for Africans looking to establish themselves in the UAE.
People arriving in the country to work, invest or start businesses may have to navigate licensing, immigration, residency and other administrative requirements.
The UAE has developed numerous routes for foreign entrepreneurs and investors.
The government’s official business guidance explains the steps involved in establishing a mainland company, including choosing a business activity, determining the appropriate legal form, selecting a trade name and obtaining the required approvals and licence. (UAE government business setup guide)
The country also offers residence options for eligible investors and entrepreneurs, including the Green residence system for certain categories of investors, business partners, freelancers and self-employed people. (UAE government residence information)
For Njoroge, learning how to navigate that environment eventually became part of her profession.
The woman who once arrived in Dubai struggling to find her first job now helps other people understand how to establish themselves in the country.
Her own experience became part of her expertise
Njoroge has said that her professional journey was shaped partly by her own experience trying to understand the UAE’s business and visa environment.
In a professional reflection published on LinkedIn, she described learning the system herself after encountering uncertainty and conflicting information.
Over time, that knowledge became something she could offer to others.
Her current professional profile identifies her work with Easy Business SetUp Dubai and describes her experience in business setup consulting and UAE visa services. (Stella Wamaitha on LinkedIn)
That evolution gives her story an unusual arc.
She did not arrive in Dubai as an established consultant.
She arrived as a 23-year-old newcomer trying to find work.
The pandemic interrupted those plans.
A landlord gave her time when she could no longer pay rent.
She eventually recovered, built professional experience and developed a career helping other people navigate the same country in which she had once been a newcomer.
Dubai became more than a place to work
The experience with her landlord also appears to have influenced how Njoroge understands community.
Dubai is home to a highly international population, and Njoroge says some of her most meaningful relationships have been with people from backgrounds completely different from her own.
In her interview with Emirates 24|7, she described herself as intentional about meeting people from different cultures and building relationships.
Those connections have extended beyond the UAE.
She recalled travelling to Egypt for her birthday and reconnecting with an Egyptian friend she had met while he was living and working in Dubai. The friend collected her from the airport, showed her around Cairo and eventually welcomed her into his family home.
For Njoroge, the experience demonstrated how friendships built in Dubai could continue long after people left the city.
She described those relationships as creating a kind of international family.
That idea is central to the way she now talks about her life in the UAE.
For people who move abroad without relatives nearby, friendships can become an important source of practical and emotional support.
Njoroge’s own experience gave her a particularly personal understanding of that reality.
Paying the kindness forward
The lesson she says she learned from her landlord eventually developed into something bigger than helping individuals informally.
Njoroge began looking at how she could create opportunities for other African women in business.
She told Emirates 24|7 that she had previously attended a high-end networking event where she was the only African woman in the room.
The experience was intimidating, she said, but she decided to introduce herself and speak to people.
That decision eventually led her to a mentor who invested in her business and opened professional doors for her.
The experience made her think about what might happen if other African women had greater access to similar networks.
She Means Business Network
In 2025, Njoroge and her friend Joan Mwende co-founded the She Means Business Network in Dubai, according to Njoroge’s account published by Emirates 24|7.
The network focuses on African women and women of colour who are professionals, entrepreneurs or transitioning into business.
According to Njoroge, the group organizes events, panels and networking sessions designed to improve visibility and access to opportunities.
When Emirates 24|7 profiled Njoroge in May 2026, she said the network had about 100 registered members. (Emirates 24|7 profile of Njoroge and the network)
The network represents a significant shift from where Njoroge was during the early months of the pandemic.
In 2020, she was worried about whether she could afford her next month’s accommodation.
Several years later, she was helping create professional connections for other women seeking to build careers and businesses.
Why networks matter for people living abroad
Moving to another country can involve much more than securing a job.
Newcomers often have to learn unfamiliar administrative systems, develop professional contacts and build personal relationships from scratch.
For entrepreneurs, the challenge can be even greater.
The UAE has deliberately positioned itself as a destination for international investment and entrepreneurship, with government initiatives designed to simplify business formation and support small and medium-sized enterprises.
In June 2026, Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism launched “SME in a Box,” a platform intended to bring services such as licensing support, banking, payments, logistics and telecommunications into a more integrated onboarding process for entrepreneurs. (Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism)
That official push illustrates the broader environment in which Njoroge now works.
The country continues to attract people who want to establish companies, relocate, invest or build careers.
But official systems are only one part of successfully settling into a new country.
People also need information, contacts and trusted guidance.
That is where Njoroge has built her professional niche.
A different kind of repayment
The landlord who helped Njoroge during the pandemic may never have expected his decision to have consequences years later.
According to her account, he simply gave a young woman some time when she was struggling financially.
He did not ask her to repay the money when she later offered to do so.
Instead, he told her to help somebody else.
That instruction appears to have become one of the guiding ideas of her life in Dubai.
Njoroge’s response has not been limited to one individual.
Her career helps people navigate business setup and visa-related matters.
Her professional network connects her with entrepreneurs and newcomers.
And the She Means Business Network is intended to give African women access to professional relationships and opportunities.
In that sense, the kindness she received has been passed forward in several different forms.
Her story reflects the uncertainty of starting over abroad
Njoroge’s story is ultimately about more than a landlord waiving rent.
It is about what can happen when someone’s carefully constructed plans collide with circumstances beyond their control.
She arrived in Dubai in February 2020 expecting to find a job.
A few weeks later, a global pandemic had disrupted the economic environment around her.
The UAE government introduced restrictions that affected travel, businesses, education and immigration. For new arrivals without established support networks, the uncertainty could be particularly difficult. (UAE government COVID-19 measures)
Njoroge’s own savings eventually ran out.
She was faced with the prospect of leaving her home.
Then, according to her account, her landlord gave her three months.
Those three months did not solve every problem she faced.
But they bought her time.
And sometimes time is exactly what a person needs to change the direction of a difficult situation.
From vulnerability to helping others
There is a striking contrast between Njoroge’s life in the first months after arriving in Dubai and the work she does today.
At 23, she was trying to find a job while watching her savings disappear.
Today, she works in business setup and UAE visa consulting.
She has built an international professional network.
She has helped establish a community for African women in business.
And she speaks openly about the importance of building relationships with people from different backgrounds.
Her professional profile now describes a career that would have been difficult to imagine during those early months of 2020. (Stella Wamaitha’s professional profile)
Her experience also illustrates how careers can emerge from unexpected circumstances.
The pandemic disrupted the plan she originally had.
But the life she eventually built in Dubai grew in a different direction.
The meaning of one small act
Stories about migration often focus on jobs, salaries, visas, businesses and the practical reasons people leave one country for another.
Njoroge’s story highlights something less tangible.
Sometimes the difference between feeling completely alone and feeling capable of carrying on can be one person’s decision to help.
For her, that decision came from a landlord at a moment when she was unable to pay rent.
The help lasted three months.
The memory has lasted years.
And the lesson she says she took from it has become part of how she approaches other people.
When she later tried to repay her landlord, he reportedly told her to pass the kindness to somebody else.
She appears to have taken those words seriously.
Today, she helps people navigate the UAE’s business environment and works to connect African women with professional opportunities.
The connection between those things is not simply financial.
It is the idea that support creates a chain.
One person helps another person stay afloat.
That person eventually becomes strong enough to help someone else.
A young woman who found a different future
Njoroge arrived in Dubai with a simple ambition: find work and build a future.
The pandemic temporarily took that opportunity away.
Her savings disappeared, her employment plans were disrupted and she reached a point where she feared she would have to leave her home.
But according to her account, someone chose to give her an alternative.
Three months of rent-free accommodation gave her enough space to get through one of the most uncertain periods of her life.
Years later, she is no longer the young woman wondering whether she can afford her next month’s rent.
She is a business setup adviser, a member of Dubai’s international professional community and a co-founder of a network seeking to help African women access opportunities.
Her story is therefore not simply about surviving the pandemic.
It is about what happened afterward.
A difficult experience became a lesson.
A lesson became a philosophy.
And that philosophy became part of the way she works with other people.
For Njoroge, the kindness of one landlord during the darkest period of her early life in Dubai appears to have changed the way she thinks about success.
Success is not only about getting ahead.
It can also mean remembering who helped you when you were struggling — and finding a way to help somebody else when your circumstances eventually allow it.
That is the legacy Njoroge says she chose to carry forward.
A young Kenyan woman arrived in Dubai hoping to build a new life.
The city gave her unexpected challenges.
One person gave her a place to stay when she had nowhere else to go.
And years later, she is trying to create opportunities for others.
Sometimes, a life-changing act of kindness does not end with the person who receives it.
Sometimes, it keeps moving.
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