Trusted Voices, Empowered Futures
Building Spaces for Women and Change in Pagirinya
In the Pagirinya Refugee Settlement of northern Uganda, the Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF) is transforming what empowerment looks like from within the community itself. Here, women and youth are using media, open technologies, and design to reshape how their stories are told, how their spaces are built, and how their futures unfold. Founded in 2017 by South Sudanese refugees, YEF is both an innovation hub and trusted gathering place, a workshop for rebuilding confidence, and a launchpad for community-led change. The organization works at the intersection of education, gender justice, and technology, using creative media and design to challenge harmful norms and open up pathways for leadership among young women and men alike.
“We don’t just train skills, we create spaces where young people, especially women, can feel safe enough to imagine something different.”
— Maurice Lokujo, YEF Programme Assistant
#ROSHOP: Architecture as Community Healing
When the world shut down during the pandemic, Pagirinya’s residents found themselves not only isolated, but cut off from the vital community life that sustains resilience. In that moment, YEF and the #ASKnet network initiated #ROSHOP a modular, open-source building prototype designed to provide safe, accessible, and non-institutional gathering spaces for community use.
Unlike formal NGO offices, #ROSHOP offers an open space that feels like home, locally designed, locally built, and open to all, with an architectural focus on natural light and ventilation, as well as low-impact materials that responded both to the challenges of the pandemic as well as the environment. The space became a trusted anchor for women’s circles, youth meetings, and creative workshops when most others were closed. Through collaboration with architects, technologists, and local craftspeople, YEF demonstrated how architecture can function as social infrastructure and a tangible space of belonging.
“It’s not just a building. It’s a signal that we can design our own spaces for connection, our own futures.”
— Vuga William, YEF Founder, Adjumani District
The design is fully documented on GitHub, allowing others to replicate and adapt the model globally. As one of the highlights of the Media Architecture Biennale, #ROSHOP stands as a beacon of participatory design, a house built not only from materials, but from trust, resilience, and shared care.
#MentorHer: Women Leading with Media and Confidence
Through projects like #MentorHer, YEF focuses on the empowerment of young women by offering hands-on training in digital media, electronics, and leadership. Led by community trainers and community role models Doreen Bazio, Amoko Joseph and Maurice Lokujo, the program has equipped over 50 young women with creative and technical skills, including podcasting, storytelling, and STEM-based innovation.
These workshops go beyond vocational skills; they help young women find their voice in public life, tell their own stories, and reshape local attitudes about gender and capability. As participants learn to build, broadcast, and collaborate, they also become mentors to others, a multiplying network of confidence and change within Pagirinya.
“Childhood is Not Motherhood”: Changing Attitudes through Media
In response to rising cases of teenage pregnancy during COVID-19 school closures, YEF launched the Childhood is Not Motherhood campaign, a multimedia advocacy and mentorship program mobilizing youth and community leaders alike. Through radio talk shows, community workshops, and stakeholder dialogues, the initiative reached teenagers, local councils, and refugee welfare representatives to raise awareness, educate boys, and rally support for girls’ rights and education.
By combining grassroots media with social advocacy, YEF demonstrates how storytelling can shift public perception and reframe gendered expectations, replacing stigma and silence with empathy, understanding, and action.
From Local Roots to Global Networks
YEF’s work reflects a rare balance between local trust and global collaboration. As a member of #ASKnet (Access to Skills and Knowledge Network), YEF contributes to an East African movement of open technology and media empowerment. Their projects, from architecture to advocacy, demonstrate what it means to open innovation: when communities define their own priorities, tools, and methods of change.
“Real empowerment begins when the community is the author of its own story.”
— Youth Empowerment Foundation, Adjumani
