On 17 June 2026, ahead of World Refugee Day, government officials, UN agencies, and refugee women leaders gathered in Kampala for the SHE LEADS Conference. Organised by Woord en Daad with YARID, UCOBAC, and CEFORD under the LEAD Project, and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the day carried one theme: Women Leading Change in Refuge and Resilience.
Two documents capture what the conference achieved and who it belonged to. Both were written by Juliët Donna, Refugee Engagement and Policy Influencing Coordinator for Woord en Daad in Uganda.
The Conference Communiqué sets out the formal outcomes: the barriers refugee women still face, the commitments made by government, donors, and UN agencies, and the recommendations that came out of the day.
Voices from the Storyboard tells the human side. Four refugee women, Vanessa Ishimwe, Milly Nancy Lagu, Rose Mashimbo, and Rachel, speak in their own words about what they have already built, often with little more than their own resourcefulness.
Read together, the two pieces make one argument:
Refugee women have proven faithful with small things. It is time they were trusted with large ones.
