Two programs in Edmonton: settlement support for newcomer families, and street outreach for people without a home. Alongside them, the education work overseas where the foundation began.
Sitting down with people is most of the work.
Edmonton, Alberta
Newcomer settlement support
Helping refugees and newcomer families through the first months in Canada, when everything is unfamiliar at once and very little of it is written down.
Arriving is not the hard part. The hard part is the weeks afterwards: a hundred small unknowns, each one easy for someone who grew up here and genuinely difficult for someone who did not.
We work through them alongside people, in their own language where we can.
Getting set up
The paperworkHealth cards, school registration, banking, and knowing which office does what.
Getting aroundHow the buses and trains work, how fares and passes work, and how to plan a journey.
Shopping and moneyWhere to shop, what things ought to cost, and how to make a first budget stretch.
The Canadian winterWhat to wear, how cold it actually gets, and how to keep a home warm without a frightening bill.
Running a Canadian home
The part people are least likely to ask about, and most likely to need. If you have never used one, a Canadian kitchen and laundry room are full of machines with unlabelled dials and assumptions built into them.
We show people how to use the appliances in their new home: the washing machine and dryer, the stove and oven, the fridge and freezer, the dishwasher, the microwave, the thermostat and the smoke alarm.
It sounds small. It is the difference between living in a place and being at home in it, and it removes a daily source of stress in a period when there is already plenty.
Volunteers take water, food and warm clothing to people living on the street, and stop long enough to talk.
The team goes out in Hope Ineza Foundation shirts so people can recognise who they are and look for them again. Supplies are handed over directly, on the street, rather than from behind a desk that somebody has to find first.
The material help is real and it matters. But the point of going back to the same streets is the other half of it: being a familiar face, remembering a name, asking how the week has been, and treating someone as a person rather than a situation. That is what people tell us they remember.
What we bring
Water, food, warm clothing and basic supplies. The things that are needed most, and that run out fastest.
How we go
In branded shirts, as a team, on foot, to the same areas, so we become recognisable rather than anonymous.
Why we come back
One visit is charity. Coming back is a relationship, and that is what gives somebody a reason to hope.
Hope Ineza Foundation was established in 2022 in Nakivale refugee settlement in south western Uganda. These programs continue alongside the Canadian work, and remain a registered non-profit activity in Uganda.
A youth training session in the settlements.
Education support
Delivered in the Nakivale and Kyaka II settlements, helping refugee children reintegrate into Ugandan schools.
Orientation to schoolsTelling families exactly what Ugandan schools require, so nobody is turned away over a document or a rule they were never told about.
Work against drug useAmong refugee youth. It is one of the main reasons young people leave school and do not return.
Cultural adaptationHelping children and families adapt so that school becomes somewhere they can stay.
Training teachers in life skillsSo that support continues in the classroom when we are not in the room.
Building New Beginnings
Our refugee training and orientation project addresses the psychological and cultural barriers that stop people feeling they belong. It reaches five settlements: Nakivale, Kyaka II, Rwamwanja, Kyangwali and Kiryandongo.
Cultural integration workshopsSocial norms and practical guidance for daily life, with open dialogue between refugees and the local community. Months 1–3.
Language and communication trainingCourses tailored to the local context, and workshops that help people express themselves. Months 4–6.
Mentorship programConnecting refugees with local mentors for guidance on careers, education and community resources. Month 7.
Community eventsCultural exchange, and collaboration with local organizations. Months 8–12.
Child sponsorship
School fees for a student in the settlements are $30 per term, or between $90 and $100 for a full academic year. Sponsorship goes to orphans and the most vulnerable children: those not attending school at all, and those at risk of leaving because their family cannot cover the fees.
Alongside fees we sponsor some of the most vulnerable children and orphans directly, and promote sports and recreation for refugee children as a right rather than a luxury.
Health, protection and basic needs
Work with young people on drug use and unplanned pregnancy, nutritious food during seminars and outreach, and clothing distributed as a basic need, which is often the difference between a child attending school and staying home.
Sponsorship gets a child through a term. A school gets a community through a generation.
We are planning a model school in Mbarara, Uganda: a seven-classroom primary school and a six-classroom secondary school, equipped, staffed for a first year, with a playground. It is intended to reduce dropout rates and lower the risk of youth delinquency, because all children will have somewhere to go.
Who it is for
Direct
Orphans and the most vulnerable children in the five refugee settlements who are not attending school, and those at risk of leaving because of family poverty.
Indirect
Children from the surrounding communities, who will attend the school alongside the refugee children it was built for.
Hope Ineza Foundation, Mbarara school project. Figures in US dollars.
Item
Cost
Purchase of a plot for school construction
$30,000
Construction of a seven-classroom primary school
$150,000
Construction of a six-classroom secondary school
$150,000
Equipment: benches, tables, books, blackboards
$15,000
Teacher incentives, first year only
$38,000
School playground
$15,000
Total
$398,000
Sessions currently run in borrowed halls.
What it offers children
Quality education for refugee children.
A reason for children who have left school to resume their studies.
A route for the most vulnerable children to access sponsorship.
Timeline. The project was scoped to run from 2024 to 2026, subject to the availability of resources. Please contact us for the current construction status and revised schedule.
Partners and sustainability
The primary partner is the Government of Uganda, where the settlements are located, working through the Ministry of Education, alongside other agencies operating in the same area including UNHCR and UNICEF. Beyond that: individuals, NGOs, churches and organizations willing to support the work.
How funds are raised
Mobilising communities and government stakeholders on child rights and child protection.
Mobilising churches in Canada, the United States and elsewhere.
Organising visit tours to Uganda so supporters can see the field directly.
Refugees and newcomer families arriving in the Edmonton area. There is no referral requirement. Get in touch and we will arrange a time to sit down with you.
What languages do you work in?
English, and where we can, the first language of the family. Between our team and volunteers that includes Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kiswahili and French. Tell us what you speak and we will do our best to match you.
Can I join a street outreach round?
Yes. Volunteers are what make the rounds possible. Contact us and we will let you know when the next one is going out and what to bring.
Where exactly do the overseas programs run?
Education support runs in the Nakivale and Kyaka II refugee settlements in south western Uganda. The wider refugee training project targets five settlements: Nakivale, Kyaka II, Rwamwanja, Kyangwali and Kiryandongo.
Is there a cost to participants?
No. Every program exists to remove cost as a barrier, not to add one.
Support the work
Every gift goes further than you would think
In Edmonton it buys water, food and warm clothing for someone living on the street, or a kettle and a set of pans for a family setting up their first Canadian home. Through our international programs, $30 covers a school term for a child in a Ugandan refugee settlement.
