Outreach & Advocacy

By Light for All – 25 November 2025

As the world commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and launches the 2025 edition of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the global call to Unite to End Violence Against Women and Girls echoes across every community. Yet in Uganda’s Nakivale Refugee Settlement, home to thousands of Burundian refugees, the voices of women and girls facing abuse often go unheard.

For many of them, violence is not a headline or a statistic—it is an everyday reality lived in silence, fear, and isolation. And as gender-based violence (GBV) escalates, a new frontier has opened: digital violence, where threats, harassment, and blackmail travel silently through mobile phones and online platforms.

Despite operating with minimal resources, Light for All, an NGO operating in Uganda, has spent 2025 documenting alarming cases of GBV among Burundian refugees—cases that reveal not only individual suffering but a systemic failure to protect survivors.

Forced From Home: “Choose the baby or leave with the others”

In April 2025, Light for All met C.N, a mother from Nakivale refugee settelement, who was thrown out of her home with her three children. The children’s stepfather ordered her to “remove the two older girls” and remain only with the newborn they share.

Today, C.N and her children survive through sporadic neighbour support. Their schooling has been disrupted, and their emotional wellbeing has deteriorated. She reported the case to police and child protection services—but no action was taken. The perpetrator walks free.

“Leave with your five children or I will force you”: A Family Living Under Threat

Also in Nakivale refugee settlement, D.K., a mother of five, remains under constant threat of expulsion by her husband, who refuses to live with “children of another man.”
Two of her children are seriously ill, and D.K recently underwent surgery—yet even in this vulnerable state, she continues to face threats of violence.

Authorities were informed, but no protective measures have been put in place. The family sleeps each night not knowing whether they will be forced out the next day.

Fifteen Years of Violence and a Threat to Kill: Eliane Story

In Kashojwa B in Nakivale, Eliane M., a 32-year-old refugee and nurse, has endured 15 years of domestic violence—first in Tanzania, and now in Nakivale.
By May 2025, the situation had become life-threatening. Her husband threatened to kill her. He rejected mediation and threatened anyone attempting to intervene.

Eliane has not reported the case out of fear and emotional exhaustion. Her psychological state shows clear signs of trauma. She is one of many women who remain trapped because protection structures feel inaccessible, unresponsive, or unsafe.

A Disappearance That Haunts Nakivale

The most heartbreaking case documented by Light for All is the disappearance of Gloria A, a 38-year-old woman with albinism. In May, she left Nakivale for Tanzania with her 8-year-old child after her husband asked her to join him in Bukoba. The child later returned alone, visibly shaken. At the Uganda–Tanzania border, he was separated from his mother and never saw her again.

Given the high risks faced by people with albinism, the family fears that Gloria may have been killed. They suspect her husband’s involvement, yet no investigation has provided answers. Light for All continues to support the family as they search for truth and justice.

A Disturbing Pattern of Impunity

The cases documented in 2025 expose a troubling and consistent pattern in Nakivale:

• Women and children face extreme vulnerability within their own households.

• Perpetrators act with near-total impunity.

• Humanitarian responses remain inconsistent and insufficient.

• Digital violence is rising, creating new pathways for intimidation, humiliation, and extortion mainly via whatsup.

• Survivors experience profound trauma with little sustained support.

This crisis is not only personal—it is structural.

Digital Violence: The New Shadow of Abuse

Phones and social media, once lifelines for communication, have become tools of harm. Refugee women and girls increasingly face:

• Online harassment

• Digital blackmail

• Threats via messaging apps

• Non-consensual sharing of images

• Cyberbullying

These forms of violence leave scars just as real as physical abuse—yet they remain poorly understood and rarely addressed.

Digital spaces must become safer. Online violence is real violence, and its impact on refugee women cannot be ignored.

Light for All’s Call to Action – 16 Days of Activism 2025

On this 25th of November, Light for All calls on:

Humanitarian Organisations

Expand and strengthen GBV prevention and response services in Nakivale. Survivors cannot wait months for help.

Local Authorities

Ensure access to justice, enforce protective laws, and take decisive action against perpetrators.
Impunity must not be an option.

Donors and Partners

Invest sustainably in community-based and women-led organisations that are closest to survivors and can respond quickly and meaningfully.

The Refugee Community

Break the silence. Challenge harmful norms. Speak out against violence—at home, in public spaces, and online. Report abuse. Support survivors. Promote dignity.

Survivors Must Not Be Abandoned

Every woman and girl deserves to live free from violence, free from fear, and free to shape her future—whether the threats come from inside her home or across a screen.

Light for All remains steadfast in its commitment to stand with refugee women and children, documenting abuses, providing psychosocial support, and advocating tirelessly for justice and protection.

On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we reaffirm:

Refugee women and girls deserve safety. Dignity. Justice. Online and offline. Always

#AllOfUsforHer