Our Stories

Impact stories, news coverage, and updates from Silent Café

Featured Story

Brewing Inclusion: How 2025 Shaped Silent Café

As Silent Cafe, 2025 was a year that stretched us, taught us, and affirmed why we exist. From a new home in Bukoto, to national recognition, to deepening our work with Deaf coffee farmers, 2025 reminded us that inclusion is not an idea. It is a practice.

As we step into 2026, we invite you to pause with us and glimpse where this journey is going next.

"Silent Café is not just a place you just visit; it's a place you belong."
December 2025 Silent Café Team Year in Review
Smiles at Silent Café - the community at our new Bukoto space

2025: A Year That Moved Silent Cafe Forward

This year brought several milestones. Some, we celebrated loudly, others were just quietly felt. In our brewing inclusion journey, we tell you more about some of our big achievements at Silent Cafe including:

  • The opening of our new home at Plot 52, Bukoto Street
  • Our Coffee Agronomy outreach with Deaf coffee farmers in the Elgon region
  • The National recognition of our founder – Nasser Ssenyondo for inclusive job creation
  • Our new website and social media platforms to tell deeper stories, week by week

Each milestone mattered not because it made us bigger but because it brought us closer to the people we serve.

"Every milestone in 2025 carried one question: who does this include?"

Read more: The story behind our move to Bukoto

Nasser, Founder and Managing Director
Customer experience at Silent Café in Bukoto

A New Home, A Shared Space

Plot 52 Bukoto: Where Silence Speaks

Our café found a new home. But more importantly, a new rhythm.

Located alongside Alliance Française and Goethe-Institute, Silent Café now sits at the intersection of culture, language, and community. Students, families, creatives, and visitors walk in curious quietly but later leave transformed.

Sometimes, groups arrive and agree on one simple rule: "Let's not talk." And for a few hours, hands speak. Eyes listen. Coffee connects.

"In silence, we discovered how much there is to say."

Read more: Inside the Dine-and-Sign experience

Silent Cafe's Impact: Seen & Recognised = Collective Pride

On 1st May 2025, Silent Café's founder, Nasser Ssenyondo, received the National Independence Diamond Jubilee Medal for inclusive job creation and community empowerment. Awarded by the president of the Republic of Uganda, His Excellency, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

We received this recognition not as individuals but as a collective because at Silent Cafe, we employ Deaf staff who are redefining hospitality; we work with vulnerable farmers thus building dignified livelihoods; we collaborate with a range of partners who have joined us in choosing inclusion and more importantly, we our customers who keep coming back and growing with us!

"This recognition belongs to every Deaf young person who believed they had a place."

Read more: Why inclusive businesses matter in Uganda

National Independence Diamond Jubilee Medal Award
Hajarah, Deaf coffee farmer from Sironko District

Where Coffee Meets Destiny

Hajarah's Story: The Seed That Found Its Voice

For Hajarah, a Deaf young mother and wife from Sironko District in the Elgon mountains, coffee farming felt distant for years. It wasn't because the land wasn't there, but because communication didn't really work out well. Through Silent Café's agronomy work, something has shifted and today, Hajarah leads a group of Deaf coffee farmers; she also mobilizes her community and coordinates inclusive agronomy activities.

Moreover, she has defined her own future, a plan to run a 5+ acres of coffee farm. What once felt like survival now feels like direction.

"Silent Café didn't just teach me farming — it helped me see my future."

Read more: Hajarah's full journey from silence to leadership

Silent Cafe is Building Partnerships That Deepen Impact

Our partnerships in 2025 strengthened the roots of our work. We have connected with:

  • Alliance Française & Goethe-Zentrum Kampala to deepen cultural and linguistic immersion
  • Bees & Trees Uganda to advance inclusive, quality agronomy

Together, we are building a value chain that connects: the farm, a skilled coffee farming community, Quality Coffee beans, An alluring cup of coffee and an Inclusive community!

"True partnership doesn't add noise, it adds depth."

Read more: How partnerships shape inclusive coffee systems

Partnership and collaboration in action
Silent Café ready for Sunday openings in 2026

Looking Ahead to 2026

We want to Deepen the Roots and widen our Circles. And our focus is on two major shifts:

🌱 Putting Agronomy at the Center Stage

By empowering more Deaf farmers, advancing training so that more farmers produce quality coffee, and building a stronger farm-to-cup connection. Through value addition, coffee exports and farmer partnerships.

☕ Sundays at Silent Café

Due to growing demand, we're opening Sundays! This means more families time at our cafe, more chances to drop in at your free time to learn sign language over a cup of coffee. All is like more slow weekends filled with connection.

"Weekends are for family and now, for shared silence and a cup of coffee too."

Looking Forward Together

Whether you come for the coffee, the signs, the silence, or the stories you are welcome here.

2026 is not something we are building alone, It is something we are going to be building together.

📍 Visit us: Plot 52, Bukoto Street, Kamwokya

🕒 Open: Monday – Sunday | 7:30am – 8:00pm

🌍 Explore more: www.silentcafe.org

Our Stories Off the Press

Media coverage and external recognition of Silent Café's impact

Silent Café interior featured in press
Responsible Tourism Company

Silent Café Officially Opens on Bukoto Street in Kampala, Uganda

Coverage of Silent Café's official opening, highlighting our mission to create an inclusive space where Deaf and hearing communities connect through coffee and sign language.

December 2024 External Coverage
Read Full Story
Silent Café team featured in video
YouTube Feature

Silent Café: Empowering Communities Through Coffee

A video feature showcasing Silent Café's unique approach to social enterprise, highlighting our Dine & Sign experience and the impact on local farming communities.

December 2024 Video Feature
Watch Video