JRS began providing psychosocial and recreation services in Mai-Aini camp in 2009 in response to the continued arrival of refugees fleeing human rights violations in Eritrea, including prolonged military conscription, torture, and arbitrary or unlawful detention. As of July 2012, the camp hosts a population of over 15,000 refugees. Most of the refugees are adult Eritrean men, many from urban areas.
JRS serves around 1,500 refugees at the camp, providing psychosocial support and organising recreational activities such as sports, drama, music and a library. These programmes give refugees something positive to focus on while in exile and are very much geared towards youth empowerment and capacity building for life outside the camp. This work is currently funded through Caritas and the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
Eastern Africa
Regional Office
easternafrica@jrs.net
+254 20 3874152
http://www.jrsea.org
Eastern Africa is one of 10 geographic regions of the Jesuit Refugee Service, an international Catholic organisation founded by the Society of Jesus.
In eastern Africa JRS is currently implementing 13 projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, reaching out to over 105,000 refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees. JRS Eastern Africa provides education, psychosocial support, pastoral care, peace-education, livelihoods services and emergency relief and is involved in human rights protection and advocacy activities on different levels.
Altogether, there are over eight million refugees and internally displaced persons in the whole region, including Somalia.
JRS started working in Africa in the early 1980s. One of the earliest commitments was in Ethiopia, providing food, shelter and medical aid to thousands of people displaced within their own country by war and famine.
In the early 1990s the JRS Eastern Africa region was established with the regional office based in Nairobi, Kenya.
In 1992 one of the biggest and longest serving JRS projects was set up in Adjumani, northern Uganda, assisting Sudanese refugees mainly through education and pastoral care. It was closed in 2008, after 75 schools were handed over to the government and most of the refugees were repatriated to Southern Sudan, now helping to rebuild their country, with the skills they gained during their exile in Adjumani.
Today, JRS's biggest operations in eastern Africa are in Southern Sudan, providing support in education, peace-building and pastoral accompaniment.
Ethiopia: Another step towards implementing new project
Mai-Aini, 26 March 2010 — JRS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian government and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to officially launch a new project in Mai-Aini refugee camp on February 25, 2010. The camp is located near Shire, northern Ethiopia, close to the border with Eritrea and hosts around 15,000 Eritrean refugees.
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Ethiopia: new project to open in the north On 20 January, JRS announced that plans to open a new project for Eritrean refugees are at an advanced stage.
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