🌍 Refugee-led · Uganda · Est. 2017
Refugees don't need only aid.
Refugees don't need only
aid.
They need also to earn an income.
They need
income.
Empowering Refugees, Building Futures
Skills, hope, and community for lasting change
Born inside the community.
Led by those who live it.
Muganzi Mushongole Adonis, Founder
YAREN Organisation Ltd is a non-profit organization registered as a company limited by guarantee, incorporated under Uganda's Companies Act 2012, with an operational hub in Ziranumbu, Makindye Ssabagabo, Kampala.
Mr. Muganuzi Mushongole Adonis founded Action des Jeunes Pour le Developpement (Youth Action for the Development) in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2014.
An initiative meant to promote peaceful coexistence by connecting communities with international experts to address local conflict in the areas of Bibokoboko, Baraka, Fizi Territory in South Kivu, Eastern Congo DR.
His work was interrupted in 2015 when he fled and relocated to Uganda as a refugee due to escalating violence in eastern DRC.
In Uganda, he continued working with vulnerable populations, particularly youth and women refugees, focusing on resilience, empowerment, and social cohesion.
This experience led to the establishment of YAREN Organisation in 2017, a non-profit organization (formerly the Young African Refugees Entrepreneurs Network), inspired by a strong commitment to human dignity, protection, and community transformation.
YAREN's organisational identity is anchored in these programme pillars:
These pillars are not siloed thematic areas but a deeply integrated approach to building human and community capital simultaneously.
- Founded by refugees and led by qualified
- Operating in Kampala & beyond
13,000+
PEOPLE REACHED SINCE FOUNDING
YAREN’s model is simple but rare: train people in real skills, connect them to real markets, and let the community own the result.
- Tailoring & crafts cooperatives
- Entrepreneurship
- Women & youth Economic Empowerment
- Clean water & health access English for adult and Books reading for children
Creating a better society for high-risk communities.
Improving living standards, tackling poverty and unemployment, increasing local capacities, and promoting self-resilience among refugees and vulnerable populations.
To train, promote, and empower high-risk communities.
Equipping them with skills that enable self-reliance and stimulate entrepreneurial spirit through sustainable community practices.
Three pillars.
One mission.
Every YAREN programme is architected around the three forces that create lasting change, income, capability, and stability.
Income Generation
Vocational training in tailoring, crafts, agriculture, and digital skills each connected directly to employment and enterprise creation in the community.
01Capability Building
Business literacy, financial management, leadership training, and mentorship, so participants don’t just find work, they build futures and lead others.
02Community Stability
Clean water access, psychosocial support, health outreach, and safe spaces for women because economic growth is impossible without safety and dignity.
03
Numbers that
tell real stories.
Since 2017, YAREN has been quietly building one of Uganda’s most authentic community-led empowerment movements, one person, one skill, one enterprise at a time.
13,000+
PEOPLE REACHED
Across Uganda since founding refugees, host community members, and their families.
11+
ACTIVE INITIATIVES
From tailoring cooperatives and agricultural programmes to water access and health outreach.
$30K+
INVESTED IN COMMUNITIES
Raised and deployed directly into training, tools, equipment, and infrastructure. Zero bloat.
From survival
to self-reliance.
A young mother arrives in Uganda with nothing but her child and her will to survive. Eighteen months later, she is running her own tailoring business and training three other women in her community.
This is not an exception. This is what YAREN builds systematically, programme by programme, person by person.
“YAREN didn’t give me fish. They taught me to fish, and then helped me build the boat.” YAREN GRADUATE, NAKIVALE SETTLEMENT
HER JOURNEY WITH YAREN
Jenga Jamaa
Flagship Programme
A 3 year initiative to move entire communities from vulnerability to lasting self-reliance. We are building systems not short-term relief.
Skills - Jobs
Vocational training directly linked to employment and enterprise creation
Agriculture Income
Farm-to-market programmes for sustainable household income
Women & Youth Empowerment
Economic empowerment centred on women, teen mothers, and youth
Water Safety
Sustainable clean water access enabling communities to thrive
PROGRAMME ROADMAP
2026
LAUNCH2027
SCALE2028
SUSTAINWhat makes us different.
Community-Led
Founded and run by refugees. We understand the needs because we live them no outside perspective, no assumptions.
Income-Focused
Every programme leads to economic independence. We measure success in earnings, businesses launched, and jobs created.
Dignity First
Our model is rooted in respect. Participants are entrepreneurs and leaders not aid recipients to be managed.
Evidence-Based
We track outcomes rigorously. Every programme is evaluated and refined against real, measurable impact data.
Locally Rooted
Our trainers, mentors, and staff are from the communities we serve. We are inside the problem not above it.
Sustainable Systems
We build capacities that outlast our programmes cooperatives, networks, and skills the community owns permanently.
Fund one person's entire journey.
Every dollar goes directly to training, tools, and mentorship. No overhead bloat every contribution builds real independence.
Every dollar builds
a dignified life.
YAREN operates with radical transparency. Donors receive quarterly impact reports showing exactly where their money went and what it achieved.
Donate Now →
Together, we move faster.
We welcome partnerships with NGOs, corporates, foundations, and governments who share our conviction that communities can solve their own problems when given the right support.
Get In Touch →Programme Funding
Multi-year grants aligned to Jenga Jamaa and our core initiatives
Technical Support
Skills, expertise, and mentorship for our team and participants
Market Access
Connecting YAREN graduates to employment and purchasing networks
Advocacy
Amplifying refugee voices and YAREN’s work to wider audiences
Integrity
Full transparency in finances, reporting, and all community relationships
Community
The community is not our beneficiary it is our partner and our leader
Resilience
We channel the strength already inside every refugee into sustainable futures
The principles that guide
everything.
Integrity
We operate with full transparency, in finances, impact reporting, and every relationship we hold.
Community
The community is not our beneficiary. It is our partner, our leader, and our reason for existing.
Dignity
Every refugee is a person of enormous worth. Our programmes honour that truth always, without exception.
Resilience
Refugees have survived the unimaginable. We channel that strength into sustainable economic futures.
Hope
Displacement is temporary. Human potential is not. Every programme is an act of hope made concrete.
Faith
We are grounded in the belief that people, given the right conditions, will always rise to meet their potential.
The most powerful
change comes from
within.
Join YAREN in building a world where every refugee community has the tools to write its own future with their own hands.
