Refugee Children´s Project (RCP)

About us

The Refugee Children´s Project (RCP) is a charity organisation that was founded by a group of refugees in 2002. The organisation was originally formed to facilitate the integration of refugee children and unaccompanied minors into South African society. As an advocacy and relief organisation with more than nine years of experience in working with refugee women and children by supporting, protecting and promoting their social justice, human rights and their access to basic resources and services.

Our vision is a world where refugee children and their families are well integrated and are able to live same life style just as local communities.

Our mission is help refugee children and their families to build new live in their country of asylum by facilitating them to be effectively integrated into local communities and removing some of their barriers to their local integration.

Strategic objectives:
• To integrate refugee women and children into local communities by removing some of the barriers to their local integration in order to facilitate them to access to basic services in their host countries;
• To achieve sustainable impacts on the lives of refugee and migrant children through dialogue, advocacy and training targeting their structural conditions, social position and access to children´s rights;
• To develop and implement innovative, cost-effective and integrated intervention programs that meet the needs of refugee women and children and facilitate their easy integration into local societies;
• To contribute to the effort to put refugee and migrant children on the public agenda in South Africa, and, to that end, exert pressure where the political will is absent and provide support where it exists,
• To create awareness on a range of issues those directly or indirectly affect refugees in general and refugee women and children in particular;
• To promote the optimum care and development of refugee and migrant women and children who find themselves in circumstances that place their physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development at risk.

What we do?
• Child Refugee Rights - Advancing the Rights of Refugee Children: Our Child Refugee Rights Programme seeks advocate vigorously for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced children, including those seeking asylum.
• Access to Basic Education: Challenging the barriers to accessing primary and secondary school for refugee children; Promoting the exemption policy for all refugee children in schools; Providing school uniforms, transport costs, school bags and books and other education material for refugee children living in poverty and vulnerable circumstances; Challenging school officials in regards to refugee learners; Facilitating the registration of refugee children into public schools; Advocating exemptions for school fees and challenging the debts of vulnerable refugee families; Conducting school awareness visits to inform local learners about the plight of refugee children.
• Early Childhood Development: The Crèche and Early Childhood Education program; ECD Home Based Cluster; Container Toy Library
• Women´s and Girls´ Empowerment Program: The key interventions include arrangement of temporary shelters and facilitation of access to health, economic, social and other resources or services.
• Basic Needs for Child Refugee: The program provides a comprehensive food parcel to refugee women and children, clothes and other basic needs such as shelter, assistance with school uniforms, transport costs and other schooling items.
• Unaccompanied Minors Program (UMP): UMP is a service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interests, safety and well-being of unaccompanied/separated minors. The program seeks to address policy issues relating to the treatment of unaccompanied minors, as well as mechanisms for the delivery of direct basic services to unaccompanied minors children including access to social grants, education, health care, shelter, skills training and foster care.
• Children and Youth Development Programme: The programme organises various activities for children such as traditional dancing, library and multimedia centre, life skills, homework supervision and guidance, skills development, art and culture, psycho social support, peer leadership, health advice and support, and sport activities and games including soccer matches, storytelling, group discussions, and provide refreshments and also distribute gift items where necessary. It will also aim at helping to develop the artistic skills of kids, detraumatize them, make them to think creatively, use their artistic talents to promote their integration into local communities, participating in decision making process, HIV/AIDS awareness, health and sanitation and make them responsible adults.

Mena Musenge is a Program Manager of the Refugee Children´s Project (RCP).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.