I'm Patrick Chandiga Justine Abure, a child labour survivor and the third generation of my family to experience forced migration. As the founder of CECI Uganda, a refugee-led organization serving youth and women, I know the struggles refugee-led organizations face—working hard to create change while remaining unseen and underfunded.
When I founded CECI Uganda in 2017, I donated two years of my wages to keep our programs running, but we couldn’t afford a website without shutting down operations for months. It took 32 months to save enough to build one. That decision changed everything. OXFAM discovered our work online and awarded our first €5,000 grant, opening doors to over $252,000 in funding and allowing us to impact 178,410 refugees.
But I know that our story is not unique. Many refugee-led organizations (RLOs) in Uganda are doing incredible work, yet they remain invisible and underfunded simply because they lack a website. Our study of 379 grassroots organizations mapped by U-LEARN revealed that only 28.76% had websites, while 71.24% lacked this critical resource. Those with websites had an average budget of $102,728.57, while those without averaged just $19,367.95. This isn’t about impact—it’s about access.
That’s why I launched WANII (Web Access for Nonprofits and Individuals Initiative)—a social venture designed to help refugee-led organizations become findable, fundable, and digitally equipped. WANII provides free website development, hosting, and training to organizations that otherwise couldn't afford it. A website is more than a resource mobilization tool—it’s a bridge to funding, partnerships, and sustainability.
Now, we need your help. With your support, WANII will provide 50 refugee-led organizations with three years of free domain registration, email, and web hosting, along with custom-built websites and training for their teams. This will give them a sustainable digital foundation, helping them connect with funders, scale their programs, and change lives.
Your donation is not just providing a website—it’s providing visibility, opportunity, and sustainability. Join us in bridging the digital divide and ensuring that no grassroots organization’s impact goes unseen.
Let’s make sustainable change possible—together.

