Agape Heart International Organization
Raising up Uganda’s Refugees from Poverty to a Flourishing Future
Fast Facts
Koboko, Uganda – near the Bidi-Bidi
refugee resettlement camp
Ann McStay
2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Education
How Agape Heart International Organization (AHIO) Is Making a Difference
AHIO empowers at-risk youth by providing vocational training, mentorship and hands-on work experience that lead to sustainable employment and reduced reliance on aid. Its innovative projects are designed to equip at-risk youth with the skills and experience needed to build sustainable livelihoods.
AHIO carefully monitors each project—tracking progress, identifying challenges, and capturing best practices and lessons learned—to improve and expand its impact.
In parallel, AHIO continues to assess unmet needs in the community and develop innovative strategies to strengthen and grow its service model.
Work of AHIO
- Supports refugees with scholarships for school and provides vocational training.
- Teaches adolescents psychosocial and interpersonal skills.
- Prepares youth – especially girls – and adults for assimilation into their host community and into Uganda’s culture and economy.
- Empowers communities to achieve lifelong health by focusing on hygiene, disease prevention (especially HIV/AIDS), essential nutrition, and sustainable agricultural methods.
- Strengthens families by teaching best practices for raising children in non-violent, supportive, egalitarian ways; for creating harmonious family relationships; and for resolving conflicts between tribes and ethnic groups.
Initiatives Supported by Project Redwood
2023: $12,000 to fund life skills training, to discourage child marriages and early pregnancy and to encourage women’s empowerment; personal financial management training; and training and equipment for two vocational skills – Information and Computer Technology (ICT) and sewing/tailoring.
2024: $40,000 to fund vocational training in tailoring, clothing design, and ICT for 63 new trainees and 27 continuing trainee refugees.
2025: $25,000 to expand vocational training in ICT and tailoring to equip 124 refugees with Directorate of Industrial Technology (DIT) certifications that will increase their employability and offer pathways out of poverty.
2026: $30,000 to support the construction of a sustainable training center and continue courses in tailoring, hairdressing, and ICT skills that are aligned with local labor demand and meet certifications.