Freedom with Responsibility Motivates these Winners

k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (1)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (1)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (1)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (1)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (2)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (2)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (3)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (3)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (6)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (6)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (7)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (7)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (8)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (8)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (9)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (9)
k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (10)k-SINA Social Innovation Academy - Ockenden Prize 2023 (10)
"The Ockeden International Prize is not just a validation of SINA's work but more an opportunity to leverage the recognition to expand our reach and impact, inspiring more individuals and organizations to engage and empower refugees to take leads and make a difference in their communities."
Emile Kwilyame
Co-Founder and Director
What the Judges said

SINA, nominated by Zimbabwe’s Transformation Innovation Hub (TiH), was awarded one of the four annual Prizes for a training project that’s manifestly inspiring young business entrepreneurs by implementing their principle of ‘Freesponsibility’ – combining ‘freedom’ with ‘responsibility’ – and the co-creation of ‘Self-organized Learning Spaces’. The six-member jury said the project entered, ‘Marginalized and refugee communities are creating their own sustainable solutions through Freesponsible and Self-organized Learning Spaces’, is empowering refugees in Uganda who are proof positive the training is effective with a range of successful business startups, all distinctive and autonomous ventures. “The positive effect on refugee self-reliance is a compelling outcome of the academy’s award-winning motivation,” the judges observed.

Feedback from the Field

“I’m living my dreams and not dreaming my life!” – Joseph Bwinika

“After becoming a refugee in Uganda, I lived a life of struggle trying to contribute anything I could to my family through small and informal business activities. When I joined SINA, my understanding of business changed. From just making profits, I saw how I could also help make the lives of others easier.” – Rebecca Aime

“SINA is a life transforming environment which is giving hope and meaning to the lives of the young. I was hopeless and I didn’t know what I was going to do but since I joined SINA I am now developing my professional skills and my personal growth. It is helping me to become an entrepreneur.” – Sylvain Himbana

“Life decided to give me another chance to shine when I joined SINA. I was living a hopeless life as a refugee. I was out of school. I had given up on myself. I believed a refugee could never achieve anything and is supposed to sit and wait for aid. In SINA, I went through personal development and discovered myself and my potential. It opened my eyes and changed the way I see the world. I now perceive challenges as opportunities, which has changed my life a lot.” – Guilaine Bayubasire

“SINA is creating changemaker-makers like me. I was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2012, political instabilities forced me to flee to Uganda and I became a refugee. Like many of the 1,4 million refugees in Uganda, I was lost, and broke, not knowing how to sustain.

I joined SINA as a beneficiary in 2016. I went through the SINA empowerment model, which has helped me and hundreds of others to overcome fears and unleash potentials we did not even know existed. I found meaning in my previous suffering and motivation to support others in similar situations.

Since then, it’s been a powerful journey for me. I became a trainer and facilitator in SINA, and various other roles helped me to grow. I saw an alignment of the purpose of myself and SINA then I  co-founded a replication of SINA in Kampala for urban refugees, and later, when SINA Global was created, I joined the team and became a director to foster the global movement of freesponsible and self-organized learning spaces contributing and enabling a whole generation of African youth to create a future for themselves.” – Emile Kwilyame

Ockenden International’s four cash prizes recognise and reward innovative projects that deliver evidential self-reliance to refugees and/or displaced people, the hallmark of Ockenden International since its inception in 1951. The four annual prizes are open to projects or programmes focused on Internally Displaced People (IDP)/refugee self-reliance anywhere in the world. The other eleven 2023 finalists (with the other three winners italicised) are: