What is MHT?
Kirehe District hosts 71,503 refugees, the majority children and youth. Many have grown up in Mahama refugee camp, attended Rwandan schools, and built lives here. The talent is visible: in sport, in the arts, in leadership. What is missing is access to the structured development, qualified coaching, professional networks and competition pathways that can turn that talent into a livelihood.
Mahama: The House of Talents (MHT) is Refugee Horizons' answer to that gap. It is Pathway B of our integrated model, running alongside Itetero Daycare for younger children, and converging with education and livelihoods to create a complete development arc from childhood through to economic independence.
MHT is refugee-led by design. Communities identify and lead their own sport and talent initiatives. Our role is to make that leadership possible through capacity building, mentorship, events and networks.
Four interconnected components that take a young person from raw talent to a recognised, professional pathway.
Structured workshops and recognised certification for youth sport facilitators, coaches and life-skills leaders, improving the quality of training and giving participants a credential that opens doors to employment in sport and community development.
Organising inter-community and inter-district events and competitions that give talented youth a stage, connecting them to academies, scouts and professional networks they would otherwise never reach.
Internship placements for talented youth in national sport clubs and organisations, giving them professional experience, mentorship and a foot in the door of a career that their talent alone could not open.
Refugee and host-community youth building talent together, on the same teams, in the same competitions, under the same coaches. Sport is the mechanism. Integration is the outcome.
The MHT Model
MHT does not arrive in a community with a predetermined sport programme. It starts by asking: what talent already exists here? Who is already coaching, organising, leading? What do young people in this community want to build?
From those answers, communities design their own initiatives. Refugee Horizons provides the structure, the resources, the training and the networks. The community provides the leadership, the knowledge and the ownership.
This is not a model of delivery. It is a model of enablement, and it is the reason MHT produces leaders, not just athletes.
See all our programmesOur 5-Year Goals for MHT (2026 to 2031)
By 2031, we are working toward 300+ youth participating in structured sport and talent programmes across Kirehe District, with at least 20 athletes and young leaders identified for advanced development pathways.
Support MHTMHT is one of two parallel pathways. See how Itetero Daycare, education, livelihoods and youth leadership work together.
All ProgrammesYour donation funds coaching, competition registration, certification and the internship placements that turn talent into a career.
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