Founded in Uganda. Working across five African countries.

Growing a Better Life, Rooted in Community

We work with children, youth, refugees and displaced communities across Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ghana and the DRC to build sustainable livelihoods, green skills and lasting hope — from climate-smart farms to the honey, ghee and yoghurt they produce.

  • Refugee-led
  • Youth-led
  • Women-led
A mother carrying her baby in a farm field
South Sudan Ugandawhere we began Tanzania DR Congo Ghana
112,430 people reached
in 2025
  • 112,430 people reached in 2025
  • About 122 farms established
  • 310 households supported
  • 5 community farms established
  • 5 schools supported with meals
  • 65 community boreholes supported
  • 50,000+ tree seedlings raised in supported nurseries
  • 5 countries
Who we are

Started in 2021 with USD 200 and lived experience

BetterLife International was founded in Uganda by a refugee-led team of young people who had grown up facing many of the challenges our communities face today.

For a family living with displacement, unreliable rain and few ways to earn, finding the next meal can take up much of the day. So we work on what changes that: land to farm, skills to use and enterprises that bring in money.

What we do

Five ways into a better season

All programmes
  1. Vegetables and herbs growing in a vertical garden of white pipes

    Food Security and Climate-Resilient Agriculture

    When the rains become unreliable, the first loss may be a crop. We help farmers and families grow food more reliably through demonstration gardens and practical training, from composting and drought-tolerant crops to irrigation, poultry and beekeeping.

  2. A woman standing in the doorway of her poultry house

    Livelihoods, Skills and Markets

    Learning a trade is one step. Finding tools, capital and customers is another. We pair practical skills, from tailoring and carpentry to poultry and solar technology, with savings groups, enterprise coaching, finance and routes to market.

  3. Pupils raising their hands in a school climate club

    Climate Education and Youth Leadership

    Young people will live longest with today’s climate decisions. Through Green Libraries, Eco Labs, school clubs, youth centres, Climate Academies and innovation challenges, they gain the knowledge and confidence to take part in those decisions.

  4. A girl at a water point in Yumbe

    Clean Energy, Water and Restoration

    Energy poverty, water insecurity and environmental loss often sit inside the same household. We work with communities on tree nurseries, biogas, briquettes, waste recovery and water access, easing pressure on families and the land at the same time.

  5. A young woman using her phone beside a solar panel in Rukungiri

    Digital Tools for Farmers

    Technology is useful when it shortens the distance between a farmer and a good decision. Soilla and Agribusiness Connekt bring soil advice, climate information, finance and buyers closer, always paired with face-to-face support.

School feeding

Feeding children so they can learn

Most of our work in schools begins with food. We support school feeding in five schools, so the food security work that starts on family farms also reaches children during the school day.

  • Energy to learn. Hungry children struggle to concentrate. A meal at school helps them stay focused through the day.
  • Less pressure at home. When a harvest falls short, a school meal takes some of the weight off families.
  • More than a meal. Our work in schools also includes climate clubs, Green Libraries and Eco Labs.

5schools supported
with meals

Our work with schools
A pupil in a green shirt drinking from a blue cup in class
Cooks and pupils preparing and serving a meal in a school kitchen in Rukungiri
A teacher writing on the blackboard in front of pupils in class A pupil drinking from a blue cup outside the classroom Four pupils smiling together at school
BetterLife Agro Tourism Farm

From a farmer’s surplus to the market shelf

The farm is our engine for food security and value addition. It is a stepping-stone, not a destination: the aim is for families to grow, sell and plan for themselves.

The farm modelEvery season builds on the last
  1. Seedlings and organic manure

    Refugee, displaced and vulnerable host-community families receive seedlings for vegetables, maize and other crops, organic manure and practical training to start producing at home.

  2. A harvest at home

    Families grow food to eat first. What the household does not need becomes surplus it can sell.

  3. We buy the surplus

    BetterLife Agro Tourism Farm buys surplus produce from participating farmers, turning a good season into cash and capital for the next one.

  4. Value added, sold on

    The farm processes, packages and sells ghee, yoghurt, honey and organic manure, creating a market that keeps buying.

Made from what community farmers produce

Shop our products
Featured work · Yumbe, Uganda

What women in Yumbe taught us about climate resilience

Before introducing a single farming technique, we asked women how the changing climate was affecting their day. Their answers went far beyond crops: hours spent looking for water, the distance travelled for firewood and the choices families make when a harvest fails.

72% of women in the programme adopted sack or box gardening after training

Read the Yumbe story
A woman stands to speak at a training session

Have longer? , with the women, local leaders and our team in their own words.

In their words

« Quand on doit recommencer sa vie ailleurs, on apporte aussi ses compétences. J’aimerais pouvoir les utiliser pour gagner ma vie ici. »

In English: “When you have to start your life again elsewhere, you also bring your skills. I would like to use mine to earn a living here.”

Josephine IlungaLivelihoods participant
Yumbe and Bidi Bidi Rukungiri Juba Yambio Kayanga
Where we work

Five countries, five starting points

The aim is the same in every community: food on the table and a way to earn. The starting point is not. Displacement, land, water, skills and local work all differ, so each programme begins with what a community already has.

  • UgandaWhere BetterLife began. Yumbe and Bidi Bidi in West Nile, and our communal farm in Rukungiri.
  • South SudanAn office in Juba and field presence in Yambio, including solar-powered irrigation.
  • TanzaniaA base in Kayanga, Karagwe, working with FADECO.
  • GhanaProgramme activity, including climate education.
  • DR CongoProgramme activity.
See where we work

Working alongside

Meet our partners
  • Foundation S, The Sanofi Collective
  • Farm Radio International
  • Dovetail Impact Foundation
  • World Food Programme
  • HBCU Green Fund
  • FADECO
  • ICPAC, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre
  • Moonshot
Get involved

Help families plan beyond the next meal

Funding, technical expertise, equipment and market connections all help communities build on work that is already under way.