At URBAN REFUGEES, we believe in the resilience and capacity of refugees to rebuild their lives in spite of many scarce resources and a lack of visibility. This project will support a community of refugee women in Uganda to self-organize so they can provide for their families, become self-sufficient, and integrate in their local community. Thanks to our partners, we have already raised $15,000, and need your support for this small remaining sum to help fund this new project.
Over 900,000 refugees have fled the recent war in South Sudan and sought safety in Uganda. An estimated 86% are women and children who have lost everything. Many have avoided the insecurity of refugee camps and settled in the capital city of Kampala in hopes of rebuilding their lives, but they face many challenges, including discrimination, exclusion, and poverty. There are ample opportunities to uplift the skills and capacity of the refugee community to self-organize and help each other.
Our solution is the URBAN REFUGEES incubator: an intensive, six-month training program to help refugee women from South Sudan leverage their skills and community resilience to self-organize and gain access to safety, health services, and sustainable livelihoods. Our incubator program will partner directly with a group of refugee women community leaders, and provide the organizational training they need to access and provide these critical services for their own community, safely and sustainably.
This project will enable refugee women from South Sudan living in Kampala to support their families and provide a future for their children. This stability will enable refugee youth access to education in addition to health and other critical services. We've proven the effectiveness of our incubator approach with other refugee communities: our aim is autonomy and sustainability. The women and their families will achieve independence from the aid and access to the resources they need to thrive.
