Refugee Can Be

Summary

In 2025, Refugee Can Be committed to launch a dual-track program to serve displaced girls in Uganda through academic, psychosocial, and residential support. Track one, based in the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, supports more than 200 primary school girls with tuition, food assistance, after-school mentorship, and virtual tutoring in partnership with U.S. high school students. Track two, located in Kampala, will house and support more than 40 adolescent girls who lack access to secondary education. These girls will receive safe housing, school enrollment, mental health care, tutoring, and leadership development. Both tracks are coordinated by a refugee-led team and grounded in community-based engagement, trauma-informed care, and adolescent development training. The commitment aims to build a scalable model that redefines long-term support for refugee girls by addressing the financial and social concerns that force girls into early marriages or domestic labor.

Approach

Refugee Can Be implements a two-track model designed to support refugee girls both within Uganda’s Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement and in urban Kampala. Together, these initiatives provide a comprehensive continuum of care—from early academic intervention to long-term housing and secondary education.
In Rwamwanja, the organization operates an in-settlement support program for primary school girls. This track includes tuition assistance, food support for families, and regular check-ins with caregivers to ensure that girls remain in school. By addressing the financial and social pressures that often force girls into early marriage or domestic labor, the program creates conditions for consistent school attendance and community-based stability.
The in-camp program is complemented by a virtual tutoring initiative in partnership with LACES High School’s National Honor Society in Los Angeles. Through weekly Zoom sessions, refugee girls receive one-on-one support in English language learning and participate in a cross-cultural Book Club. These sessions foster literacy, build confidence, and create meaningful connections between students in Uganda and the United States.
The second track supports refugee girls who have completed primary education and are unable to access secondary school while remaining in the settlement. Many are forced to leave Rwamwanja due to a lack of secondary school availability, abuse, and protection concerns. In response, Refugee Can Be will open a Safe House in Kampala in September 2025, providing 30 girls with a stable living environment, school enrollment, meals, tutoring, psychosocial care, and ongoing mentorship. The home will be staffed by a local team trained in trauma-informed care and adolescent development.
By supporting girls early in primary school and extending that support into secondary education and safe housing, Refugee Can Be addresses both prevention and response. This dual-track model is designed to be replicable and rooted in the lived realities of displaced girls.

Action Plan

Refugee Can Be will implement its commitment through a phased approach beginning in mid-2025 and concluding with a full pilot cycle in September 2026.
From June through August 2025, the organization will complete its strategic planning process, finalize operating procedures, and hire key local staff in Kampala. This period will also include site selection and preparation for the Safe House facility, as well as the identification and enrollment of 30 eligible refugee girls. Selection will prioritize girls who have completed primary education and are unable to access secondary school while remaining in the settlement.
The Safe House will launch on September 15, 2025. Girls will be provided with housing, meals, psychosocial support, and full enrollment in local secondary schools. They will also participate in structured enrichment programming and receive regular mentoring and academic support, including virtual tutoring through the organization’s partnership with LACES High School in Los Angeles.
Concurrently, Refugee Can Be will continue operating its in-settlement program in Rwamwanja. This includes providing tuition assistance and food support to help primary school girls remain in school, as well as coordinating family outreach and school engagement. The virtual tutoring program will continue weekly, connecting Rwamwanja students with U.S. high school mentors to build literacy and confidence. Program coordinators will conduct regular monitoring to track attendance, evaluate student progress, and identify girls at risk of dropping out or being withdrawn.
Monthly internal reviews and site visits will be conducted across both program tracks to assess educational outcomes, safety, and student well-being. The pilot will conclude in September 2026 with a full evaluation to assess impact and guide potential replication in other refugee settings.

Background

In Uganda, one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting countries, refugee girls face formidable and often invisible barriers to education, safety, and personal agency. In the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement alone, over 95,000 displaced people live in conditions where only one secondary school serves the entire population. More than 83 percent of residents are women and children, yet access to education for girls sharply declines after primary school. Many are pulled out to help with domestic labor, promised into early marriage, or left vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence (Refugee Can Be, 2023) .
The settlement lacks safe housing, structured mentorship, or trauma-informed academic support—making long-term stability and independence largely unattainable. Education is frequently a distant dream, not a realistic option.
Refugee Can Be was founded by a young woman who lived in Rwamwanja and understands these barriers firsthand. The organization was created to provide what the existing systems do not: a holistic, girl-centered model of change. Through safe housing, secondary education, tutoring, mental health services, and leadership development, it creates a long-term support system tailored to the realities refugee girls face.
This commitment is rooted in the belief that refugee girls are not passive recipients of aid but untapped leaders. By investing in their education and well-being, Refugee Can Be works to break the cycle of displacement and disempowerment. Its approach responds not just to immediate needs, but to the structural exclusion that continues to limit the futures of displaced girls. Through a model grounded in lived experience and community voice, this commitment seeks to build a new, replicable path to possibility—beginning with safety and growing into self-determination.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

Refugee Can Be is seeking philanthropic partners, impact-driven funders, and implementation collaborators to expand its programming and sustain long-term operations. The organization welcomes partnership with individuals and institutions that can support funding, strategic advising, staff training, media amplification, and policy advocacy. Additional interest lies in collaborating with organizations experienced in adolescent girls’ protection, trauma-informed education, and community-based refugee programming in East Africa.,Refugee Can Be offers a field-tested, refugee-led approach to girls’ education, protection, and empowerment. Its model combines safe housing, trauma-informed support, academic intervention, and global mentorship. The organization brings deep contextual knowledge of the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement and Kampala’s urban refugee landscape, along with firsthand insights from its founder and team. It offers a replicable model for serving displaced girls, a committed network of youth tutors and global volunteers, and research-based programming grounded in the lived experiences of refugee communities.