South Africa

RET’s work in South Africa started in 2004, working primarily in the urban areas of Durban and Capetown. RET aimed to fill the gaps in secondary education for refugees.

RET’s programs in South Africa targeted vulnerable internally displaced persons, IDPs, and refugee youth coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and Burundi. Therefore, those youth who were unable to attend school found themselves semi-literate or illiterate at a critical time in their lives. The programs were designed to integrate young people into local secondary schools through enhanced language, literacy, and computer skills training.

RET ceased operations in South Africa in 2006 but continues to work with and monitor the situation of vulnerable youth having been displaced by violence, armed conflict, or disasters in other fragile parts of Africa (see our BurundiChad, the Democratic Republic of the CongoKenya, and Mauritania, for more details).