Community-Based Protection & Livelihoods

GBV/SEA Community Trainings

Our team hosts regular information campaigns and workshops on Gender-Based Violence/Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (GBV/SEA) for refugee women and host community members within Nairobi's broader refugee communities. In 2009, RefuSHE established the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Stakeholders Committee in Nairobi where we created a framework in collaboration with UNHCR and other partner organizations to address referral strategies and effective dialogue among survivors of GBV/SEA. Our community work allows RefuSHE to more effectively identify vulnerable women and children in Nairobi who have experienced GBV/SEA and connect them with medical support, shelter, and psychosocial counseling. We also train refugee women from our Women’s Ambassador Groups (WAGs) to become community educators on GBV/SEA prevention in their native language so that this information reaches more refugees.

Women’s Ambassador Groups

RefuSHE’s Women’s Ambassador Groups (WAGs) are the foundation of our organization’s community engagement work. WAGs members, many of whom are GBV/SEA survivors themselves, serve as protection advocates and foster care parents to vulnerable refugee girls living in their community, as well as business mentors to young refugee women transitioning out of RefuSHE’s programs. RefuSHE currently supports over 1,200 women in 29 different WAGs groups across Nairobi’s urban refugee communities. These groups also comprise a small number of host community members which helps foster social cohesion.

Economic Empowerment

Many refugee women in Kenya run their own microenterprises but are limited in their ability to grow and sustain their businesses without access to formal financial tools and services like bank accounts and loans, vocational skills training, and refugee-friendly service providers. As a result, refugee women remain in a cycle of poverty and high vulnerability.

Since 2013, RefuSHE has fought for the financial inclusion of urban refugees by providing WAGs members with the tools and resources they need to become economically independent. These self-managed savings, investment, and support groups provide unique emotional and financial assistance to their refugee members. Women meet regularly to save their money, access loans, and contribute to a collective emergency social fund. RefuSHE provides WAGs with large grants, training on business skills and group dynamics, linkages to group and individual bank accounts, and formal registration with the government.

Case Management

RefuSHE also provides individual WAGs members with business advisory services and case management support in collaboration with local partners. Our 24-month program offers women the core services they need to feel safe, heal from trauma, and become self-reliant. After completing the core service program, women are referred to local partner organizations that specialize in a range of services including resettlement support, mental health care, and medical assistance and treatment.

Community Incentive Workers & Para-Counselors

Community Incentive Workers are the liaisons between RefuSHE and Nairobi’s local refugee communities. As leaders embedded in the communities where they live and work, Incentive Workers are best equipped to help resolve local conflicts, offer interpretation services, and identify and recruit fellow refugee women and unaccompanied and separated children who may benefit from RefuSHE’s programs. In exchange, RefuSHE pays the workers a monthly stipend. RefuSHE currently partners with eight Incentive Workers, all of whom are refugees and members of WAGs. Together, they represent five nationalities (Somalia, Ethiopia, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi) and seven urban settlements across Nairobi.

As part of a combined Mental Health and Community-Based Protection initiative, RefuSHE trains refugees to become Community Para-Counselors and make mental health services more accessible and relevant to refugees living across Nairobi’s informal settlements. With 40+ urban refugees representing six East and Central African countries, Para-Counselors identify community members in need of mental health services and deliver trauma-informed counseling in their native language. By putting the knowledge and tools into the hands of those who understand the refugee journey firsthand, RefuSHE is improving mental health conditions and access to resources across urban refugee communities in Nairobi.

SHElearns

In 2020, RefuSHE was forced to adapt to the challenges brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic by moving to a more digital-friendly service model. The success of virtual learning prompted a broader driving question: Is there a digital solution that can help more urban refugee women learn and improve their quality of life? In partnership with Mastercard Foundation, RefuSHE set out to create a fully digital eLearning and wellness platform for urban refugee women in Nairobi.

SHElearns helps refugee women develop the entrepreneurial and wellness toolkits they need to invest in their talents and create financial stability for themselves and their families. Through customized skill-building video content and digital tutorials led by refugee entrepreneurs, SHElearns is paving the way for urban refugee business development and wellness.

Advocacy

In order to create a wider and longer-lasting impact for refugees, RefuSHE helps influence policy and promote local and global awareness of the refugee crisis in East Africa. In addition to offering community-based trainings and legal aid, RefuSHE regularly participates in panel discussions and policy roundtables to advance dialogue and solutions for urban refugees, advocate for the protection of unaccompanied refugee children, and publish reports on current trends and best practices. We also partner with the Department of Refugee Services and the Directorate of Children Services to train local government officials, police, and child protection volunteers on refugee and children’s rights in order to enhance the protection of refugee girls, women, and their children. Additionally, RefuSHE acts as a mediator between host community members and refugees when issues cannot be resolved by local leadership.

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