Today, 70 million people around the world are displaced or live as refugees. This number will grow exponentially in the coming years.

To.org Foundation has been working to address the crisis of displaced people, deconstructing the humanitarian industrial complex to build a new action-oriented approach properly equipped for the insurmountable challenges that lie ahead.

Context:

At 61 years old, Nakivale Refugee Settlement is the oldest continuously operating refugee settlement in Africa, home to more than 100,000 people from at least 8 African nation states. Opened in 1958, the 71-square-mile camp has grown to become a pan-African city in its own right.

Approach:

In many ways, Nakivale’s rooted presence and open space in Uganda provides the perfect R&D platform for our new empowerment approach. Along with Alight, we have partnered with a local refugee entrepreneur incubator, Opportunigee, to launch new projects and form new alliances. This unified effort combines the resources and knowledge of the international community with the creative ingenuity of Nakivale innovators and entrepreneurs, establishing a new best practices model for inspiring positive change in collaboration with local communities in environments such as Nakivale.

COVID-19 #TOGETHERFUND:

Over the past month, as international and domestic travel has shut down, local leaders in Nakivale have purchased their own vehicles for transporting goods, while local innovators have been building hand washing stations and making protective gear for widespread distribution.