Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT) is a refugee-led non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 2017. Our core mandate is to support conflict-affected youth by tackling barriers to access to quality education and dignified, sustainable livelihoods, and by addressing the root causes of violent conflicts in displacement settings.
Our 2030 Country Strategic Framework is anchored on four core programme areas: saving lives, protecting people on the move, building resilient communities and transforming lives among displaced populations, particularly youth. Our programming spans a diverse range of initiatives that address both immediate humanitarian needs and long-term development goals through a nexus approach that integrates humanitarian assistance, development, and peacebuilding.
Our 2030 vision is self-sustained and violence-free communities. We pursue this through the Triple Nexus, which links humanitarian action, development, and peace, because lasting change requires all three to work together.
To promote peaceful communities by tackling access barriers to quality education, hunger, and the root causes of violent conflicts for displaced youth.
Self-sustained and violence-free communities.
All connected through the Triple Nexus of humanitarian action, development, and peacebuilding.
Emergency food and cash assistance, COVID response, cash-for-work infrastructure, and community peace dialogues through Peace Clubs and trained Peace Ambassadors. 123,231 people directly reached.
Play-based psychosocial support through TeamUp, GBV prevention and response, community case management, child protection, and gender-inclusive advocacy across refugee settlements. 19,590 people directly reached.
Vocational skills, climate-smart agriculture, VSLAs, 112,325 tree seedlings planted, 2,238 clean cooking stoves built, and ICT and CCB innovation through the MIT D-Lab partnership. 12,938 people directly reached.
Accelerated Education Programmes across 13 schools, digital literacy through Can't Wait to Learn, teacher social-emotional support, and mother-to-mother school retention advocacy. 7,670 people directly reached.
Governance systems, four consecutive external audits, MEAL infrastructure, mentoring of 80 RLOs and CBOs in partnership with UNHCR, and sub-granting to eight local organisations. 117 staff across Uganda and South Sudan.
Every individual we work with carries a different story, shaped by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and origin. In a community where people have fled from more than a dozen countries, diversity is not a talking point. It is our daily reality, and we are stronger for it.
Our decisions are based on objective criteria and justice, not favouritism or bias. Every community member, staff member, and partner is held to the same standard of fairness.
Communities are not passive beneficiaries. They design, implement, and evaluate everything YSAT does. We pay particular attention to youth, because today's refugee settlement residents are tomorrow's leaders.
We are answerable to communities, donors, and partners. Our 96% expenditure rate and four consecutive external audits are not just financial metrics. They are proof of how we use every resource.
Love for all, hate for none. We do not allow conflict, violence, or injustice to destroy our commitment to peace. It is the foundation of every peacebuilding session we run and every community we work to reconcile.
Executive Director & Secretary General to the Board
John founded YSAT in June 2016 as a Facebook platform amplifying youth voices, then registered it as a community-based organisation on 31 July 2017. A South Sudanese refugee, he built YSAT not from a funding opportunity but from direct lived experience of displacement, tribal violence, and the gap between international aid and the communities it claimed to reach. Today he serves as a UNHCR Global Advisor, Co-Chair of the Charter for Change Working Group on the Localisation of Humanitarian Aid, Obama Africa Leader, and Oxford International Summer School Fellow.
Senior Field Coordinator, Operations
A South Sudanese refugee, Jacob was among the first to embrace YSAT's vision after John founded the organisation, volunteering his time and lived experience of displacement to help it find its footing. His personal history of conflict and forced migration gave him a deep understanding of what YSAT was building: a space where displaced people lead their own solutions from within.
INSPIRE Manager
A South Sudanese refugee and one of YSAT's first volunteers, Amuna brought lived experience of displacement and a commitment to community-led change from the very beginning. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Social Work and Social Administration from Bugema University. Today she leads YSAT's INSPIRE project, overseeing education and child protection programming across Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement.
Headquarters inside Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, inaugurated in March 2025 — built by and for the community. Field offices in Imvepi, Bidibidi, Pakele, Kiryandongo, and Arua City. The Arua City office was opened in August 2025 to improve coordination with donors and partners.
Country office in Juba (Tongpiny, near Turkish Embassy) with field presence in Jonglei (Ayod, Duk Counties), Eastern Equatoria (Magwi County), Central Equatoria (Morobo, Kajo-Keji, Juba), and Greater Pibor (Pibor, Gumuruk) — areas where active conflict makes conventional programming almost impossible.
Uganda: Legally registered with Uganda's National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organisations as a Regional NGO. Reg. No: REGR152704213NB | MIA/NB/2020/10/4213.
South Sudan: Legally registered with the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) as a National NGO under Chapter 3, Section 10 of the NGO Act, 2016. Reg. No: 2407.