2017 - Paulinho Muzaliwa fled his home in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu region when armed militia groups began fighting. He arrived at Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda with nothing.
2018 - Despite facing a "loss of a future" like many refugees, Paulinho was inspired to give everything. He received a scholarship from Idea4Africa to study Entrepreneurship, Business, and Leadership. That same year, he founded Unidos Social Innovation Center.
"As a young Congolese refugee, Paulinho was faced with a loss of a future, like many more refugees. He arrived with nothing in Nakivale. But was inspired to give everything." — Gene Dewey Award Nomination, 2024
Unidos originally focused on business, leadership, and English education. But when UNHCR couldn't finance refugees more than $3/month for food, and most could only afford 1 meal per day, Paulinho made a critical decision.
As global food prices skyrocketed, dry seasons prolonged, soil eroded, crops failed, and refugee populations increased—he pivoted Unidos entirely to regenerative agriculture.
"Once it became clear that UNHCR was not able to finance refugees a food package of 3$/month, and most could not afford more than 1 meal per day... he decided to dedicate his efforts to training people in regenerative agriculture." — Gene Dewey Award Nomination
Starting with just 4 Congolese refugees and land donated by Uganda's Office of the Prime Minister—no governmental or NGO funding—Unidos began rebuilding lives through soil regeneration.
"Committed to designing human systems that co-evolve in relation to their natural environment, Unidos enabled refugees to shift from dependency on humanitarian aid to start taking care of the soil." — Gene Dewey Award Nomination
Paulinho envisions a future where refugee camps are no longer temporary shelters but thriving, regenerative ecosystems with access to clean water, abundant food, and quality education.
His long-term vision extends beyond Nakivale—creating an umbrella NGO model that helps vulnerable refugee-led projects across East Africa survive funding gaps and achieve multi-year sustainability.
"What if we could create an international NGO that can play as an umbrella to funds regenerative projects around refugees camps, we can start within East Africa, train refugees in capacity building, monitoring and evaluation of their projects, impact measurement..." — Paulinho, July 2023
in regenerative agriculture
to sustain their families
from 800kg weekly food waste
planting 5,000 trees
USA for UNHCR - Recognizing exceptional leadership and impact on forcibly displaced communities
Recognition for refugee-led innovation
Nominated for environmental leadership
Recognition for regenerative agriculture innovation
Selected from 1,500 applicants
Top 10 most socially impacting startups
"I always envisioned a cooperative of entrepreneurs, where self leadership and holacratic organisation supports the scaling and quality of service provided to clients." — Paulinho on organizational design
Core Approach: Promotes horizontal leadership and decentralization using systems-thinking to rebuild communities.
"Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people – they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress." — Paulinho on leadership
"Refugees for Refugees" — The best way to help the displaced is by being displaced. Lived experience creates better solutions than external charity.
Help build refugee camps into regenerative ecosystems where everyone has access to food, water, and opportunity.
