In Uganda’s Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, where families are starting over with limited resources and shrinking food rations, Mariam is building something remarkable—stability.
Having fled South Sudan in 2016 because of ongoing conflict, she walked nearly 200 kilometers with her children to reach safety in northern Uganda, a journey marked by exhaustion, fear, and uncertainty about the future.
When she arrived in the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, the challenges weren’t over. “Everything was hard,” she recalls. “We had nothing—no food, no clothes, and we were carrying so much trauma from what we witnessed. I didn’t know how we would survive.”
But today, Mariam’s story is no longer defined by survival. As a successful entrepreneur and community leader, she has transformed her family’s journey into one marked by resilience, stability, and a brighter hope for the future.
The challenge of shrinking food rations in Uganda’s Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement
When Mariam and her children arrived at the refugee settlement in 2016, they depended on food rations from the World Food Programme to eat, like so many other refugees in Bidi Bidi. But over time, due to shrinking foreign aid budgets, those rations became smaller and less consistent.
Monthly food rations—typically including staples like maize, beans, sorghum, rice, oil, salt, and sometimes meat—are intended to last an entire month. But for many families, reduced rations sometimes only last a week.
Because there aren’t many economic opportunities in the settlement, families were forced to make difficult choices as food rations dwindled. This included skipping meals or even feeling pressured to sell their rations to pay for other basic needs. For Mariam, a single mother caring not only for her own children but also several nieces and nephews, the pressure to provide was overwhelming.
It wasn’t until Mariam joined DREAMS that she found a way to sustainably provide for her family.
DREAMS is an award-winning program by Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps designed to help refugees lift their families out of extreme poverty and become financially self-reliant. By providing training, mentorship, and seed capital, Village Enterprise trains participants on how to become successful entrepreneurs and start small businesses. Meanwhile, Mercy Corps works to strengthen local markets to ensure those new businesses thrive long term. This approach creates sustainable sources of income and reduces families’ dependency on humanitarian aid, which can vanish at a moment’s notice.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur in a refugee settlement
Mariam’s journey with DREAMS began with a business that she started alongside two other refugees in her community. They used their business grant from Village Enterprise to open a small retail shop selling basic household goods and food staples.
With the training from their business mentor, Mariam and her business partners learned how to manage inventory, track income and expenses, keep financial records, and work as a team. When their business started generating profits, they equally divided their earnings and started household businesses of their own for an additional source of income.
For Mariam, she chose poultry farming.
Because of her early business success, Mariam was selected to become a Mother Unit Operator, meaning she’s responsible for raising young chicks for the first few months of their lives. This early stage of raising chicks is especially critical, requiring specialized care and knowledge to ensure the chicks survive and grow strong.
As the chicks grow older, she sells them to other members of the community, who either raise them to sell or as a source of food.
Mother Unit Operators like Mariam serve a key role within the poultry value chain that Mercy Corps established through their market systems work. First, Mercy Corps provides Mother Unit Operators with specialized training on poultry rearing and then connects them with private sector actors outside of the settlement—such as chick suppliers, feed producers, and buyers in surrounding towns and regional markets. In doing so, Mother Unit Operators become a crucial link between formal market systems and the refugee settlement, helping ensure young chicks are properly raised before being sold to other small-scale farmers, while also strengthening market connections on both sides.
“I didn’t know anything about raising chickens before,” Mariam says. “But through the training, I learned how to run something of my own. That knowledge changed my life.”
Mariam started with just 250 chicks. At the peak of her poultry business, she was raising and selling up to 1,300 chicks at a time.
Her business ventures and entrepreneurial spirit didn’t stop there. On top of the shared retail shop and her personal poultry business, she started a third business of making liquid soap. That way, as supply and demand fluctuates for chicks, she has another income stream that she can rely on to support her family.
Mariam’s ability to predict and respond to market realities is a testament to the skills she gained through DREAMS.
Moving from dependence on food aid to becoming financially independent
Perhaps the most powerful change in Mariam’s life is her independence from food aid.
Like many refugees, she once relied on monthly rations as her only source of food. Today, she provides for her family entirely through her own income.
“With my business, I can buy food for my children, pay their school fees, and take care of them,” she says. “They will not be sent home from school because of fees. That makes me proud.”
Her success has transformed her home as well. Where her family once slept on the ground in a grass-thatched hut, Mariam has been able to build a house with an iron roof, purchase beds and mattresses, buy household and personal amenities, and create a safe, stable environment for her children.
She has also saved over 9 million Ugandan shillings ($2,431 USD)—a significant milestone that allows her to plan for the future, cover school fees for her children, and navigate unexpected emergencies without falling back into extreme poverty.
DREAMS as a sustainable and effective solution to support the most vulnerable
Mariam’s story is not unique—today, more than 22,800 refugees and host community members in Uganda and Ethiopia have started small businesses through DREAMS. With the added impact of the market systems development work in the settlements, DREAMS has transformed more than 244,300 lives.
The data speaks for itself.
DREAMS was recently evaluated in two independent randomized controlled trials by IDinsight. The studies found that DREAMS significantly increased consumption, savings, and assets for program participants in Uganda and Ethiopia. Compared to a control group, DREAMS entrepreneurs increased:
- Monthly consumption by 17% in Uganda and 9% in Ethiopia
- Savings by over 90% in both countries
- Household assets by 20-24%
Behind every increase in consumption, savings, and household assets are families building lives that once felt out of reach.
Families are eating more nutritious meals, accessing medicine and healthcare when they need it, and creating better living environments for their children. Parents are purchasing school supplies and paying school fees with confidence. Entrepreneurs are expanding their businesses, building homes with iron roofs, and investing in livestock, equipment, and other assets that strengthen their financial future.
At a time when humanitarian aid continues to decline and traditional safety nets—like food rations—are no longer enough to support refugees like Mariam, DREAMS offers a sustainable and dignified solution towards financial independence and happier, healthier lives.
Looking towards a brighter and more hopeful future
Mariam is continuing to build on her success with determination and vision.
As a Mother Unit Operator, she currently raises chicks only in their earliest stages before selling them. But she has her sights set higher. She wants to be able to raise them to full maturity on her own for a significantly higher profit.
To do that, she needs more space.
Mariam is currently saving to build a larger poultry house on her land—an investment that will allow her to expand her business, care for more chickens, and increase her profits. At the same time, she’s saving to purchase land of her own where she can create a permanent home for her family.
“I want to keep growing,” she says. “I want to build a future where my children are secure and can continue their education.”
Mariam’s story is a powerful reminder that refugees are not just survivors—they are entrepreneurs and leaders breaking generational cycles of extreme poverty. When given opportunities and resources, refugees can move from dependence on aid to becoming financially self-reliant. The results are transformative—families are no longer experiencing hunger and food insecurity, children are able to stay in school, and entire communities and local economies are growing stronger.
“I feel proud of myself,” Mariam says. “Now I have become somebody.”