Empower East African Refugee Youth in Uganda

At Soccer Without Borders (SWB) Uganda, the pitch continues to be a place where young people can play, connect, and discover what they are capable of. In recent months, hundreds of girls have come together through the Uganda Girls League, while participants across other programs have taken on new challenges as leaders, referees, and changemakers in their communities.

The sixth edition of the Uganda Girls League brought more than 400 girls together during the school holiday. Girls from different communities met on the pitch to compete, make new friends, build confidence, and showcase their talents. By the final day, the league was filled with celebrations as teams and individual players were recognized for their performances.

The scale of the league reflects the importance of creating dedicated opportunities for girls to play. Across each outing, the pitch offered a safe and supportive environment where girls could express themselves, enjoy the game, and see what they can achieve. With another school holiday ahead, the Uganda Girls League will continue creating opportunities for girls to return to the field together.

For some participants, opportunities to lead are also taking on new forms. In August, 15 girls graduated from the third cohort of the Global Girls Project after completing three months of leadership and problem-solving sessions in partnership with St. Paul Primary School in Nsambya. The girls put those skills into practice through activities including a community clean-up and a graduation discussion they led on barriers to girls' education. Joined by community members, they shared ideas about how more girls can have opportunities to learn and succeed.

A new six-month Global Girl Leadership Academy is building on that work. Ten girls in Uganda who previously completed the Global Girl Leadership Initiative are participating in the pilot alongside 10 girls in Nigeria. The program began by helping participants build connections, establish shared values, and reflect on their aspirations. Over the coming months, they will strengthen their leadership skills and design community action projects of their own.

Other young people are finding different ways to step into leadership through soccer. This summer, 28 refugee and host-community youth began SWB Uganda's third Youth Referee Training. Participants studied the Laws of the Game in the classroom before practicing their skills through refereeing exercises and match scenarios on the pitch. Alongside learning to officiate, they are developing communication, confidence, and decision-making skills that can support future refereeing opportunities and potential income generation.

Teenage boys also reached an important milestone in Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM). After completing the program, participants gathered for a Pledge Day to reflect on what they had learned before committing to respect, positive relationships, gender equity, and responsible behavior on and off the field. The day gave participants an opportunity to consider how those lessons can carry into their everyday lives and communities.

Education remains another important part of SWB Uganda’s work. Parents and guardians of participants in the formal school scholarship program recently met with the SWB team to discuss how students are doing, share challenges, and identify practical ways to support them. These conversations help ensure that support does not stop once a young person enters formal school, but continues as they navigate their education.

That spirit of listening and collaboration is also helping shape what comes next. In October, SWB Uganda launched the first co-creation and stakeholder consultation for the REVIVE Lab in Nsambya with support from UNHCR and the Refugee-led Innovation Fund. Local government leaders, refugee community leaders, and other stakeholders came together to identify community needs and explore how the initiative can support refugee and host-community youth through learning opportunities that include literacy, STEM, digital skills, and social-emotional learning. From the beginning, the goal is to build the initiative with the community it will serve.

Across these programs, young people are being given opportunities to take an increasingly active role in their own learning and communities. Whether a girl is stepping onto the pitch alongside hundreds of peers, leading a conversation about girls' education, or a young person is picking up a referee's whistle for the first time, each experience creates another opportunity to build skills, form connections, and recognize their own capacity to lead.