Our Sisters’ Opportunity
Our Sisters' Opportunity (OSO)
Sector Portfolios
- Sani (Education)
Focus Areas
- Education
- Health
- Livelihoods
- Gender Equity
- Human Rights
- Climate
Cohort 05 (2026)
- East Africa
- Rwanda
Delphine Uwamahoro founded Our Sisters' Opportunity after returning to Rwanda as a radiology technologist and discovering that the women she had grown up with had nowhere to turn. Many had been victims of sexual violence, been forced into early marriage, lived in extreme poverty with limited access to necessities, or were living with HIV. She built OSO for the women that every other system had already passed over.
OSO trains roughly 200 women each year in Rwanda, including survivors of violence, teen mothers, women with disabilities, and school dropouts, in fashion design, tailoring, soap-making, and agribusiness. Training is fully funded and runs for a year, combining vocational skills with entrepreneurship, leadership, life skills, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health education. Graduates receive startup capital, access to entrepreneurship hubs, savings support through Village Savings and Loans Associations, and two years of mentorship and market linkage, and are encouraged to create jobs for at least three other women in their communities. The organization also runs GBV prevention programming across ten districts, reproductive health education in secondary schools, and Eco-stitch, an initiative turning pineapple leaf waste into ethical fabrics.
Partner Impact
OSO MODEL
Leadership Highlight
Uwamahoro Delphine
Executive Director
Delphine Uwamahoro is a social entrepreneur, global health professional, creative designer, and advocate for children and women. After finishing her studies, she returned to work in her home village, where she realized how her primary school peers who didn't get the opportunity to pursue further studies were threatened by socioeconomic challenges, struggling to meet basic needs for themselves and their children. This was a common challenge for many families around her.
She founded Our Sisters Opportunity (OSO) with a vision to end poverty in her community through education and the promotion of innovative, entrepreneurial local solutions. OSO seeks to help vulnerable girls and women achieve economic empowerment through vocational training and sustainable employment in ethical fashion and agribusiness, while eliminating all types of gender-based violence in their community.
Prior to founding OSO, Delphine was Country Director at TIP Global Health. She also led partnerships and digital health businesses at Allm, a digital health company based in Japan. Delphine is a Radiology Technologist by qualification, a Perennial Fellow, a Skoll World Forum Fellow (Johnson & Johnson), an SFF Social Innovation Incubator Fellow, and a Collaborative Learning Initiative Fellow. She was named Rwanda's Best Fashion Designer of 2019. She loves traveling, gardening, music, and tie dye creative sessions.
Her favorite quote: "When girls and women get opportunities to thrive, they can do whatever it takes to fulfill the basic needs of their families and tremendously impact their communities' livelihoods."
Igiraneza Clarisse
Program Manager
Clarisse IGIRANEZA is a Rwandan young woman, an aspiring strategist, and an advocate passionate about sustainable community development and women's empowerment. In my career journey, I have served in different positions at women's rights initiatives, a field that resonates with me and my background, where I significantly contributed to women's empowerment, both socially and economically. As an advocate, I am part of different advocacy spaces where I join other young people to amplify the voices of vulnerable women and girls in Rwanda, so their rights are exercised and their livelihoods transformed.
I now serve as the Program Manager for Our Sisters' Opportunity (OSO), a non-profit organization that empowers vulnerable women and girls from rural areas. I lead the program that transforms them into thriving Women Entrepreneurial Leaders and Agents of Change, who are creating employment opportunities and championing gender equality in their communities. I also contribute to the organization's resource mobilization efforts through grant writing and strategic partnerships, ensuring that we can secure enough resources to transform our community's livelihoods, end poverty, and care for our planet. To ignite my passion for community development, I joined UNLEASH, one of the largest global social innovation labs for the SDGs, as a facilitator, helping youth from across the globe innovate and turn their ideas into solutions that respond to their community needs and bring lasting change. I am a Changemaker who strongly believes in my power to lead the change I want to see in the world.
