Home away from home

THE WORST PLACE TO BE A WOMAN IS A REFUGEE CAMP

While entire communities suffer the impact of armed conflict, women and girls are often the first to lose their rights to education, to livelihoods among other rights being bluntly violated. . Life in a refugee camp is a life of poverty, limited access to opportunities but mostly hopelessness and despair.Plus unwanted pregnancies, earlier or forced marriages.

STARTING A NEW LIFE, FINDING A NEW HOME

Home Away from Home is a refugee integration program currently operating in Nakivale Camp in Eastern Uganda. We focus on achieving gender equity by not leaving women refugees behind when it comes to women’s liberation.

FREE ACCESS TO EDUCATION

We are currently fundraising to build a school; the idea came from realizing the high rate of teen pregnancies in these temporary residence camps. Which was in large part as a result of young girls between the age of 11 to 17 years old not being able to go to school and learn because of the abject poverty they live in, within the camps, also because of the severely limited educational opportunities. Moreover, refugee families privilege boys over girls because of these limits, and girls are therefore left far more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse.

In 2021 we started to send young girls to school so they can have free access to education. Then, once a week, they receive individually, tutoring at the community library. The tutor helps them in this educational reintegration journey which consist partially of catching up on certain class subjects they have missed since they didn’t have a stable educational journey as they should have.

Would you care donating 10$ and send one kid to school?

Nakivale Community Library

In December 2019, we opened a library in partnership with CEBUNA organisation. The library gives free access to literacy tools and activities run by the community. It is currently as well enhancing young children’s education by exercising what they have been learning in class as an extracurricular activity.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING:

We cannot talk about women’s liberation without mentioning financials’ liberation especially when you are a refugee and moreover a woman refugee. That’s how In April 2021, Home Away from Home program launched an entrepreneurship training at the Nakivale Refugee settlement in partnership with Kisoboka Africa organisation. The training is being attended by 10 young women who are currently receiving different lessons which will accompany them in their journey of becoming entrepreneurs. Soon in October the very first cohort will be graduating from the training and will be ready to start their businesses.