What We Do

Our core areas of work include education, emergency assistance, livelihood initiatives, and psychosocial support. With its regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, JRS Eastern & Southern Africa delivers support to refugees and asylum-seekers in camps and urban areas. We also serve people internally displaced in their own countries across Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Angola, and Zimbabwe.

Our History in the Region

JRS began operations in Africa in the early 1980s, initially providing food, shelter and medical aid in Ethiopia for those displaced by war and famine. In the 1990s, our services expanded rapidly in response to massive refugee influxes from civil wars and inter-ethnic conflict in Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many refugees settled in large camps in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, and in urban areas.

Today, several of our programs from that era remain active — including in Kakuma, Adjumani, Nairobi and Kampala.

The creation of the new nation of South Sudan brought hope, yet in December 2013 peace collapsed and the resulting violence and instability caused millions to become internally displaced and many more to seek safety in neighboring countries. More recently, the tragic conflict in Sudan has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee into surrounding countries.

Since 2025, the region has been formally designated as the JRS Eastern & Southern Africa Region, incorporating operations in Malawi, South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe. Angola and Mozambique experienced long civil wars after gaining independence from Portugal in 1975; the presence of apartheid-era South Africa compounded their struggles. In response to mass displacement, JRS was established to assist Mozambicans fleeing into Zimbabwe and Malawi, while tens of thousands of refugees from eastern Africa sought safety in South Africa. Our ongoing focus remains emergency assistance, education, livelihoods and legal support.

Angola · Burundi · Ethiopia · Kenya · Malawi · Mozambique · South Africa · South Sudan · Tanzania · Uganda