Empowering Refugee Communities
A holistic approach towards resilience in Uganda
Thousands of refugees live in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in southwestern Uganda, telling stories about the lives they left behind and what they have overcome.
Anatoli Muribori and her husband, Paul Mutagira, are from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In their former country, they had a promising way of life, using their land and resources to provide quality education for their 10 children. On their three-acre land, Anatoli and Paul cultivated beans, maize, and sweet potatoes, and operated a farm with five cows, several goats, and poultry.
But in 2017, the outbreak of war forced them to flee to Uganda with eight of their children, eventually settling in Kyempango Village in Kamwenge District. Their two eldest children had started families of their own and remained back home.
The couple struggled to make ends meet in Uganda, resorting to providing casual labor which did not pay enough to cover their children’s school fees.
With money and resources growing more scarce and the memory of their family farm in the DRC fresh in their minds, Anatoli and Paul contemplated returning home — though they were unsure of what they might encounter there.
Luckily, Anatoli and Paul enrolled in the USAID-funded Graduating to Resilience Activity in 2022. Through this activity, they were assigned dedicated field staff to help them set achievable goals and develop strategies to start working toward them. Anatoli and Paul also received specialized training in the Farmer Field and Business School, equipping them with better agronomy practices to enhance the harvests from their gardens. They also signed up for financial literacy training, gaining valuable knowledge in cash flow management and financial planning.
After receiving $300 in start-up capital from the program, and collaborating with their Graduating to Resilience Activity trainer to create a sound business plan, they ventured into a business buying and trading produce. Anatoli and Paul strategically buy grains of maize from local farmers, dry and store the produce properly, and wait for favorable market prices from wholesalers to sell. Each four-month season, they generate an estimated profit of $260, which they happily invest in their children’s education.
Anatoli speaks to their profound commitment to education: “Educating our children has always been our primary goal. I am very happy that together with my husband, we no longer worry a lot because we have gained skills and established our own enterprises to support our income generation plans and timely payment of their school fees.”
Within 10 months, Anatoli and Paul’s business was among the most lucrative ventures launched by participants in the Graduating to Resilience program, an approach that has been implemented in more than 40 countries by a number of organizations.
“The best investment we chose was to offer quality education for our children; three of our children are in secondary school and five are in primary school,” Anatoli said. “Every term, we pay an equivalent of Ugx 800,000 ($200) for their fees, uniforms, and other scholastic materials.”
With USAID’s assistance, Anatoli and Paul have committed to staying in Uganda, prioritizing their children’s education and their new, flourishing business.
The couple has further diversified their income sources by initiating a new goat-rearing business, anticipating that the revenue generated from the sales will strengthen their produce business and provide even more money to cover their children’s expenses. The new skills Anatoli and Paul gained add to their resilience as a family, moving them off of refugee assistance and sustaining their own business.
They aren’t the only ones to succeed.
The seven-year program has uplifted 80% of 13,200 refugee and host community households in Kamwenge District, southwestern Uganda, enabling them to forge a more prosperous future.
By empowering refugee and host households with essential skills and resources, the program seeks to enhance self-reliance and resilience among vulnerable communities.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power recognizes the value of this cost-effective approach, recently telling Congress: “For every dollar we invest [in the Graduating to Resilience Activity in Uganda], households are seeing over four times the return in economic benefits. And we are now taking that program on the road to other nations.”
About the Authors
Belshazzar Katorobo and Olive Ngamita are communication specialists for AVSI Foundation in Uganda, a non-profit organization that carries out development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects. Across 40 countries, AVSI Foundation works for a world in which every person is the protagonist of their integral development and that of their community, even in emergency contexts.
