What We Do

iRefuge puts in place mechanisms to appropriately coordinate response to emergencies that can affect normal community life. Important to note in our emergency intervention are:

• Emergency response assessment
• Respond to natural and conflict emergency in the region
• Appropriate coordination to response to any disaster management
• Assessment pre and post distribution response
• Distribution of food and non-food items (NFI)

We increase multi-sectoral capacity to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage. iRefuge focuses its attention on strengthening GBV prevention, risk mitigation, and response through service provision, coordination, advocacy, and linkages for women and girls including persons with disability.

Agriculture supports 90% of livelihoods in South Sudan. People depend on crop farming, fishing and livestock rearing. The disruption of the production process due to insecurity, access roads and markets has had an impact on food security. Therefore, improving access to sustainable sources of food and income is an important recovery component for a community that faced conflict-related emergence. We support refugees, IDPs and host communities to increase production by engaging in subsistence farming and the establishment of kitchen gardens through distribution of seeds and tools. We further train them on basic farming skills, business skills, Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) among others. We do the following:

• Create awareness on agricultural technology in communities to scale production.
• Train and establish community cooperative stores for agricultural practices.
• Establish appropriate technologies in micro irrigation to support vegetable production and improve lifestyle and market reach.
• Support and provide tools for farmers to establish seed banks among farmer groups.
• Develop capacities of farmers to increase crop diversification among the communities.
• Improve child nutrition through establishment of milking goats to farmers across the country.
• Support and promote climate-sensitive / smart agricultural and industrial activities.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are linked in many ways to people’s wellbeing. Poor hygiene, inadequate access to clean drinking water, and lack of sanitation facilities cause millions of people to die from preventable diseases each year, and children are particularly most affected. We contribute to establishment and strengthening of WASH sector institutions and capacity building at all levels to accelerate and sustain delivery of WASH services to vulnerable communities. To ensure access to water, sanitation and hygiene, iRefuge carries out the following:

• Awareness on hygiene and sanitation
• Drill boreholes
• Support harvesting of rain water and train water-management committees
• Support community and institutional access to VIP latrines
• Support vegetable growth around boreholes or water points

We support increased enrolment and access to quality education through training of teachers and support to schools. We ensure teaching and learning materials are in the hands of pupils, students and teachers. We do the following to ensure access to quality education:

• Support school development plans for basic and secondary schools.
• Support formation of school development groups to develop a school plan of action.
• Provide education materials to schools to improve quality of teaching and learning.
• Support teacher training and school management committees.
• Support formation and training of Parents-Teachers Associations.
• Embark on retention of girls and most vulnerable children in school.
• Advocate for scholarships for higher education.
• Support Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALP) at school and community level.

iRefuge aspires to provide quality health services among vulnerable communities using integrated community-led and community-focused approaches. We provide support to health care and health education on transmittable diseases among the communities we serve.

• HIV/AIDS awareness and sensitisation
• Support formation of groups and develop plans of action.
• Support dissemination of HIV/AIDS health messages to populations in community.
• Support PLWHA with IGA activities (VICOBA).

iRefuge supports women and girls to participate actively in leadership and good governance at all levels of local governance structures, to ensure that their issues are brought to the spotlight. To effect this we ensure that:

• Women and men are mobilised to address GBV issues.
• Train women, girls and boys on access to economy in the family, community and at national level.
• Engage women and men to address bad cultural practices.
• Train women, youth and men on VICOBA management.
• Community empowerment through income generating (SACCO, VICOBA & Community Cooperative Society).
• Sensitise and create awareness for women groups, leaders, communities and youth to be lead agents of change.
• Support women’s innovative arts in the communities and the region.

The effects of climate change are a central cause of hunger, malnutrition and poverty. iRefuge integrates adaptive strategies and measures into our programs to enable our target communities to deal with climate change; we mainly focus on assisting people acutely affected by climate change to adapt to new conditions. Our programs are designed to sustainably strengthen resilience to climate change effects by sharing knowledge on climate-adapted cultivation and harvesting methods with climate-resistant crops using high-quality seeds.

We promote the development of local structures and cultures for conflict mitigation and peaceful conflict management in communities. iRefuge works with partners to organise and conduct activities that promote peaceful coexistence in the various communities. To ensure the success of this programme:

• iRefuge will support peaceful coexistence mechanisms of communities to encourage wellbeing by strengthening community mechanisms for family development and ensuring hope is enhanced among refugees, IDPs and communities of South Sudan.
• Work with women and youth groups to develop their capacity to enhance change as agents of change through providing moral support and positive ethical values among communities.
• Support women and youth on ARTs for peace and encourage good coexistence.
• Strengthen and support community protection and peace groups.

Human Rights Advocacy addresses moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected as legal rights in state and international law. Everyone born in this world has human rights that must be protected by law. Basic human rights recognised around the world were declared by the United Nations through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France, on 10 December 1948. Of the then 58 members of the United Nations, 48 voted in favour, none against, eight abstained, and two did not vote. iRefuge aspires to educate the populace on basic human rights outlined in the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration. Education for awareness goes together with advocacy.