Number of people served in 2020: 133,319

With a regional office in Goma, JRS Great Lakes coordinates the provision of education, housing, psychosocial support, and livelihoods projects to vulnerable refugees and other forcibly displaced in the region.

The JRS Great Lakes region was set up in 1995 in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and other widespread ethnic violence. The first team was dispatched to Bukavu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and JRS quickly spread to other parts of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. Since then, JRS teams have accompanied people uprooted by violence that is largely due to the exploitation of ethnic identity and the struggle over land and precious natural resources.

JRS is currently present in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Tanzania.