Help to Create Self Organized Empowerment Spaces in East Africa

Every minute, 24 people around the world are forced to flee their homes. 34,000 people per day leave everything behind in the hope of finding safety and a better tomorrow. There are 66 million forcibly displaced persons in the world today and over 1.5 million refugees in Uganda alone, a country with only 40 million inhabitants. The refugees have fled mainly from Burundi, DR Congo, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan and are facing an uncertain future.

The youth unemployment rate in Uganda is high (83% according to UBOS) and opportunities are almost non-existent. On the other hand refugee youth has an enormous drive to be able to sustain themselves, generate income and create a dignified life for themselves, but they are seen as burden in different communities.

Since 2014 the Social Innovation Academy (SINA, http://www.socialinnovationacademy.org) educates former orphans, street children, refugees and other disadvantaged youth in Uganda to become job creators and social entrepreneurs with the ability to turn challenges into solutions. Over 20 newly created social enterprises have been impacting over 250,000 lives and won several international awards. The first replication of the SINA model was successfully implemented in the Nakivale Refugee Camp in Uganda, where over 100,000 people live - SINA OPPORTUNIGEE (http://www.socialinnovationacademy.org/opportun...) currently 40 young refugees are creating their own opportunities.

It is now time to scale the SINA model further. Two dedicated teams of young refugees from the DR of Congo will bring it to an urban slum in Kampala, where many refugees live and into Congo itself, to Bukavu, where many refugees come from.

These self-learning spaces will allow young people to make a sustainable living out of what they are passionate about. By helping them to transform their lives, they become social entrepreneurs and job creators.

Through self-organization and *Freesponsibility*, the youth transforms their own personal tragedies and tackles the most pressing issues in their slums and local communities.

Within a supporting framework these young refugees and marginalized youth are in charge of themselves. The first thing taught is how they can teach themselves. The learning spaces then distribute all authority among them. Young people are gradually empowered to make autonomous decisions in their roles. Task groups define what is expected of each role and hold each other accountable. Roles are dynamically updated which lets the young people grow their skills in different areas.

The young people do the accounting for the learning spaces, connect to the government or handle all logistics and manage also income generating activities for self-sustainability.