Denise Ayebare is a 23-year-old social entrepreneur from Uganda working with refugee and internally displaced women to turn small plots into sources of food and income through climate-adapted farming.

At 19, Ayebare founded BetterLife International after her family fled Rwanda’s civil war and encountered land scarcity, declining humanitarian support, and unpredictable weather in Western Uganda. Today, the organization works with refugee and internally displaced women across Uganda and neighboring countries, running demonstration farms and skills training—including a soil-monitoring app, Soilla—helping participants turn small plots into sources of food and income with techniques co-developed with the communities themselves.

Ayebare founded and directs BetterLife International after seeing displaced women care for their families with little land and limited resources. She brings communities, local governments and partner organizations together to co-design programs, mobilize resources and oversee implementation.