JRS Livelihoods Program| ‘We are a project building hope’
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), South Africa, Livelihoods program provides skills training for refugee and South African women in various skills including nails, massage, hair, and make-up. In the 2020/2021 group, 152 students completed the program and 250 students have been enrolled for the 2021/2022 class.
Hugette, one of the students in the 2020/2021 class came to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), hoping to have a safer and better life for herself and her children. When she arrived in South Africa, life here was tough for her.
She explains:
‘I didn’t know how to start a life here or where to start’
Hugette, was a student in JRS livelihoods program in 2020/2021. She heard about the classes at JRS from a friend. She was assessed and enrolled in the South Africa office livelihoods program. Hugette has completed all her training modules and reflects on her experience in the program.
‘I am thanking JRS for helping us as women. I have the knowledge, I can move up with my life and be independent. I am thanking JRS for what they have done with my life. Now I know how to do nails, massage, and make-up.’
Michelle, a professional masseuse, motivational speaker, and teacher for the livelihoods program explains the important role the livelihoods program plays for refugee women in South Africa.
Many of the women in our program have limited education, are unemployed, and struggling to look after their families. The livelihood program provides women with skills, to use their hands to assist their families in providing food and rent. In our department, we give everyone a chance regardless of their educational background. We facilitate you becoming a professional, we also give hope.
Michelle is a teacher but also gets to know the women in her classes very well and their experiences of being a refugee in South Africa:
Being a refugee woman in South Africa is a lot, these women go through a lot. Refugee women are mothers, sisters, aunts, friends, daughters, these women go through so much, they face so many challenges with little family support. Many of them have left their parents and are here to fend for themselves. These women are strong. Knowing what they go through it is sometimes too much to swallow- they have to fight and stand on their feet by themselves.
The JRS livelihoods program has a diverse group of refugee women from around the continent and local South Africans. Part of the reason for prioritising diversity is for the classes to also provide an opportunity for reconciliation and cohesion-building within diverse communities.
Hugette reflects that:
‘In life, you will meet different cultures, nationalities, the [classes] made us to be one, to understand each other whether you are from Congo, Zimbabwe or Ethiopia.’
The livelihood program's primary objective is to build skills and at the same time build futures. Hugette has graduated from the program and shares her hopes for the future:
‘ My dream is to open my own business, rent a space and hire people to help me. One day I hope I can support JRS and help people learn as I have’
‘ I have been surprised by seeing someone who had lost all hope. I met a client who said she wanted to end her life. I gave a motivational speech, and she was there, I had made her feel seen. I didn’t know that my speech had touched her life and changed her. I see her now with her small children and I am so glad we can be here to support people. I thought I was just teaching and encouraging people, but people are in dark corners and we can give them some light’.
As Michelle prepares to say farewell to her current group of students her message of hope to her students is:
‘No matter how dark your situation is, no matter where you have come from, it doesn’t mean there is no hope for you. In a dark situation, there is a tunnel, there is light and in that tunnel is JRS- we are a project building hope.’
