SINA (Social Innovation Academy)

Global Ecovillage Network logo with Earth and eco-friendly design.
  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • English
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2014

What we do

As disadvantaged and refugee youth, we transcend our challenging experiences through SINA’s freesponsible and self-organized five-step empowerment process. We develop personal and professional skills and uncover our life purposes, refusing to let our pasts define our futures. With the power of education in our hands, we acquire skills and experiences necessary to become social entrepreneurs.
SINA scholars become changemakers and shift from being passive recipients of aid to active drivers of their own future, one person and one community at a time within self-organized and freesponsible “SINAs.”
Unemployment stands at the heart of hopelessness among youth in Africa. With the youth population expected to double by 2050, young people lack opportunities and prospects, which fuels instability and perpetuates poverty. In response, SINA transforms these challenges into pathways for empowerment and entrepreneurship.
“I’m living my dream instead of dreaming my life!” Joseph Bwinika, SINA alumni from the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
SINA enables disadvantaged and refugee communities to transform challenges into opportunities and become the change they wish to see across 23 African communities and refugee camps. Each SINA learning environment unites 50 to 100 youths to locally own and locally self-organize through the freesponsible SINA Framework and transform their challenges into opportunities. Each SINA is for the community, by the community. All SINAs collaborate with each other to achieve a greater outcome than what could be achieved alone.
By taking on responsibilities and roles to run SINA, the youth create their own curriculum and gain the skills and experience necessary to develop social enterprises. Unlike in formal educational institutions, we do not graduate with a certificate and drown in unemployment. Graduation happens when a social enterprise is financially self-sustainable and jobs have been created.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Languages
  • English
  • Community type
  • Ecovillage

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2014
  • Started living together

Video

  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
100

How to join

Just come and visit us, then we can talk about the rest.

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Our Community Members

Location

  • Uganda

SINA (Social Innovation Academy)

Promoted Needs and Offers

  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
Need
  • Volunteering
1 month ago

Social Media Intern

Ecovillage Network logo with sun and moon symbols in purple.
Ecovillage Network logo with green leaves inside a circle.
Ecovillage Network logo with a heart-shaped handshake symbol.
Logo of the Global Ecovillage Network with a stylized flower design.
Logo of the Global Ecovillage Network with interconnected figures.
Social Media Intern for GEN International Hours: Up to 20/month, flexible around your schedule and availability Location: Remote, work with Eva Goldfarb Focus: Instagram + LinkedIn (TikTok if you’re into it!) Hi! I’m Eva, and I run social media for GEN International — the global network connecting ecovillages, intentional communities, and regenerative culture-builders across every continent. I’m looking for a co-conspirator to help me tell the stories of the people quietly building the future: off-grid villages in the Philippines, permaculture farms in Senegal, urban cohousing projects in Berlin, elders passing down land wisdom in the Andes. It’s a wildly rich, wildly underrepresented world, and I want more people to fall in love with it the way I have. What you’ll actually do: Dream up and create content for Instagram and LinkedIn (reels, carousels, stories, captions that don’t sound like a corporate newsletter) Dig into our global network and turn your findings into stories people want to share Pitch your own ideas. If there’s a series, a theme, a format, or a corner of the network that lights you up, that’s what I want you to focus on. What we’re looking for: A natural storyteller, someone who can spot the human thread in a project update or a photo from a faraway village Genuinely curious about ecovillages, sustainability, intentional community, regenerative living Self-motivated and communicative; this is a flexible, trust-based role Why this role: This isn’t a “post 3x a week and don’t ask questions” internship. You’ll have real creative freedom to work on what excites you, learn how a global grassroots network tells its story, and build a portfolio full of meaningful, purpose-driven content. Plus you’ll be talking to people living some of the most interesting, intentional lives on the planet. If storytelling for a better world sounds like your kind of fun, let’s talk.
  • Events
8 years ago

GEN at HLPF: side event

Wednesday, July 11, 2018, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EDT Please join us for an exchange of knowledge and celebration focusing on ‘implementing SDG 11.4 through Local Voices and Global Agendas for Cultural & Natural Heritage,’ a special event to be held in parallel to the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF). The event will bring together both local (US) and international stakeholders active in the protection of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, illustrating the vital connections between integrated heritage protection and sustainable development. Through speakers’ interventions and poster presentations, the event will also showcase exemplary efforts on how SDG11, the Urban Goal, can be implemented from the perspective of 11.4. The UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) will be convening in New York City on July 9-18, 2018 to undertake their annual review of progress made on Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, under the theme “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies.” The HLPF 2018 will also review SDG11: this is where the UN has explicitly recognized the fundamental role of culture and heritage in sustainable development, i.e. Target 11.4 to “protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” in order to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” Both cultural and natural heritage sites, while under immense pressure from the impacts of urbanization, climate change and degradation due to other natural and human factors, play a crucial role supporting local economies, livelihoods, and quality of life in human settlements. LIGHT FOOD AND BEVERAGES WILL BE SERVED Selected poster presentations will be on view during the reception. An event organized with the collaboration of UNESCO, UN-Habitat, Government of Ireland, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and

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