Together, we can change the way the world responds to refugee crises.

The world is facing an unprecedented global refugee crisis.

There are over 25 million refugees worldwide and tens of millions more displaced in their home countries. After fleeing, 99% of refugees will remain in the country adjacent to their own and the average time they’ll spend in exile there is over 10 years.

If you’re going to spend 10 years or more in exile, you are not only thinking about your next meal but very quickly your focus shifts. How are you going to truly provide for your family? How will you put your children through school, pay for medical needs, or put food on the table beyond tomorrow. How will you provide for your children right where you are?

The definition of refuge is:

“a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble”. Synonyms of refuge are shelter, safety, sanctuary, and asylum.

Refuge is the immediate need and refuge is often where the focus remains.

But the definition of restoration is:

“the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition”. Synonyms include mending, repairing, and rebuilding.

Refuge isn’t meant to be end goal. Restoration is.

However, current solutions to this global refugee crisis do not lend themselves to restoration. They are short-term and unsustainable, creating dependency and trapping families in a perpetual cycle of poverty.

Our big vision is to change the way the world responds to refugee crises, focusing less on short-term responses and long-term aid, and more on restoration through Christ-centered, self-sustaining, and empowering tools, executed by the refugees themselves.

Our experience and the success of our program has positioned us to be this catalyst.

This is where Seed Effect comes in and this is where you come in.

Since the beginning, we haven’t handed out one meal, we haven’t paid for anyone’s school fees. We provided tools and training, facilitated Christ-centered community, and presented the opportunity.

They drove the results. They drove the impact.

The significance is that they haven’t been given something that is consumed but instead have been empowered and can continue to build on that year after year without being dependent upon handouts.

Beyond the economic impact, we cannot overstate the significance of the community building, relationship building, and emotional healing aspects of these groups. It’s harder to measure with stats but time and again, in interviews our members talk about how transformational being a part of these groups is on their social and spiritual lives – moving from refuge to restoration.

According to the economic development practitioners and researchers with whom we’ve shown these results, Seed Effect’s impact with refugees is significant and far exceeds expectations.

In Uganda, we are influencing the conversation locally and we are shifting the way that people are thinking. But, to make this shift on a larger scale and bring this same opportunity and empowerment to as many people as possible, we need to first deepen our impact and expand our footprint in Uganda. We need to grow.

Our staff is ready, we are prepared to scale, and now we have the opportunity to empower more people than we ever have before.