A six-person team in Uganda brings knowledge from households and refugee contexts into a shower-design process. A 24-year-old SINA alumna who left formal education early trains university lecturers in how entrepreneurship is learned through practice. Three SINA facilitators work with six NGOs from Uganda and Rwanda to examine their purpose, test possible income opportunities and rethink how responsibility is shared inside their organizations.
These are different assignments and they have something important in common. They all happened in the last 12 months and the people invited to contribute had done the work themselves and are SINA Experts. We are now making this experience easier to find and engage through the SINA Expert Network.
Bringing Ugandan Experience into a Design Process
For a shower-design project described by PHOENIX Design, Mary Apolot coordinated a six-person Ugandan research team, including Franco Lemi from Bidibidi Refugee Settlement. Through household interviews and design workshops, they brought direct knowledge from Ugandan communities into the process before the key decisions had been made. Mary later shared SINA’s approach to testing ideas with PHOENIX Design in Stuttgart.
Read the full story from the PHOENIX Design →
When a High School Dropout Trains University Lecturers
In August 2026, SINA alumni Jesca Nayebare and Charles Busuulwa facilitated sessions with lecturers at Kampala International University on moving from teaching entrepreneurship to helping students practise it. Jesca drew on her experience of building FarmPlus, showing how an idea develops through conversations with customers, testing and adjustment rather than academic theory alone.
Read the full story of Jesca training university lecturers →
Working with six Organizations at the Suyana Learning Exchange
At a Suyana Foundation partner learning exchange in Lira (Uganda), three SINA facilitators worked with six NGOs from Uganda and Rwanda. They explored how purpose and shared responsibility could strengthen their organizations, then developed income ideas based on what they already did well. Rather than polishing plans on paper, participants prepared to test their assumptions with the people concerned, followed by mentoring through July.
Read Suyana Foundation’s account of the Learning Exchange →
Expertise built through doing
Across SINA, people run self-organized Communities, build social enterprises and support others through the same difficult process. They manage budgets and facilitate teams. They carry the SINA Framework into refugee settlements, cities and new countries. Some bring lived knowledge of displacement, agriculture, health or particular markets. Others have years of practice in social entrepreneurship, freesponsibility, facilitation and organizational self-management.
Until now, much of this expertise travelled through personal relationships and individual invitations. Someone knew Mary. Someone had worked with a SINA facilitator before. Someone had heard Jesca’s story. The SINA Expert Network gives this a clearer doorway.
An organization can bring us a challenge without already knowing whom it needs. We can connect it with one person for an expert conversation or bring together a team for research, facilitation, advisory work or a longer engagement.