Durban Address:
Room N242
Diakonia Centre
20 Diakonia Avenue
Durban
4000

Tel: (031) 826 1935
Fax: (086) 602 1690

Email: info@refugeesocialservices.co.za

Office Hours:
Mondays – Thursdays: 8:00 am -4pm
Fridays: 8am – 2pm
Mondays: Orientation sessions
(For first time clients) 8:30 am
Tuesdays & Thursdays: Appointments only
Wednesdays and Fridays: No appointments. Days reserved for meetings.

All clients are required to attend an orientation session. After this you will be given an appointment to see a community development worker where you will be screened and assessed.
Refugee Social Services will only be able to grant assistance, based on assessment and review of the case:

Housing Assistance:
RSS works on a referral system and will direct you to shelters within the city. All payment towards accommodation is made electronically into the property owner’s bank account or the account of the organization renting out the accommodation.

Psycho-social assistance:
Counseling and referral services are provided to refugees and asylum seekers by qualified staff or trained social workers and community development workers.

Eye Tests:
Contact Refugee Social Services for a referral for an eye test. Payment for your spectacles (even at reduced rates) will only be made for those who are tested and found to be in need of them.

Dental Clinic:
Contact RSS for a referral letter to a hospital where treatment is provided free of charge.

Funeral Assistance:
RSS will assist with a contribution towards the burial arrangements of the deceased. You will be provided with a letter for the undertaker requesting relevant details about the funeral, including banking details.

It is RSS policy to pay only after the funeral has taken place. Please be advised that we cannot contribute to costs for the remains of the deceased to be transported to their country of origin.

Educational Assistance:
It is the responsibility of parents or caregivers to make sure that their children are registered and admitted to schools in good time. Only in unusual cases will RSS facilitate the admission of children in to schools. RSS will be able to provide you with a list of schools.

Please note that RSS does not provide school fee assistance to individual families. You are encouraged to apply for school fee exemptions through the schools you have applied to if you are unable to pay school fees.

Limited transport assistance is provided for those assessed to be the most in need.

Child Protection services:
RSS offers limited numbers of needy parents with contributions to edu-care fees. In addition, through our home based child care project we offer access to an increasing number of affordable edu-care facilities to refugee parents.

Language Support Classes:
RSS provides French and English classes for secondary school learners at Bechet Secondary School (which serves as a hub school) in Sydenham, after school hours. These language support classes are held to assist refugee learners to pass Grade 12.

Vocational training and Self Reliance Projects

Learning to speak English:
This is a specifically designed course that runs for a period of 10 weeks. Two, two hour sessions are held per week over the duration of the course. Clients who qualify and are selected for this course may already have a grasp of basic English, but may be in need of further language training to prepare them for inclusion in employment or other self reliance activities.

Conversational Zulu classes:
Zulu classes are now being offered to refugees willing to commit at least 4 hours of their time per week. Classes are held on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from 14h00 to 18h00. Please contact the office for information on the venues for these lessons. Note that this is a program being offered in partnership with the Provincial Department of Education’s Masifundisani Program.

Vocational Training:
RSS offers a selected number of clients the opportunity to attend short courses to improve their access to employment. Courses available are in line with current job opportunities in the labour market. The aim of the training is to help clients earn an income in the short term. A criterion for selection is applied.

Home Based Child Care:
The Home Based Edu-care project is an income generation project mainly for women .It has two broad objectives:

To assist vulnerable refugee women with an opportunity to earn an income, and provide affordable day care services to parents of preschool aged children (both refugee and South African) in low income areas where there is a scarcity of childcare.

Women selected for inclusion in the project will receive training and a start up kit as well as ongoing mentoring and monitoring. Selection criterion for inclusion in this project will apply.

Interpreters’ Project:
This program looks at harnessing the English language skills of refugees and turning them into an income generation activity.

Refugees and asylum seekers with good English and other language skills are identified, orientated and details placed on an organizational database. If you qualify, you will be called in when needed to assist with communicating with refugee clientele who cannot speak English.

The aim of this project is to utilize the skills within the refugee community to assist service providers and clients to communicate with each other; for example during their assessment interviews and psycho-social counseling interventions.

This is a way of providing a small income for refugee men and women who provide a valuable service to the clients, community and RSS. A code of ethics and terms of reference have been drawn up to ensure that the clients’ confidentiality is maintained.

HIV Program:
The organization has a comprehensive HIV Program that covers care from prevention through to the long term.

We have a trained group of refugee peer educators who provide HIV and Aids awareness to refugee communities in their own languages. Voluntary counseling and testing and early disclosure is promoted. Our trained social work staff provide in depth psychological counseling and relevant referrals. They also facilitate voluntary repatriation if requested.

Anti-Xenophobia Activities:
RSS has produced a ‘Unity in Diversity’ toolkit that assists practitioners to engage in activities that help people to recognize their prejudices and stereotypes with the aim to changing them to promote acceptance.

The toolkit consists of an easy to use manual and DVD. This is available for purchase at R 160 from the office.

We have recently trained a diverse group of youth facilitator’s who will be utilizing the toolkit to bring about positive change in their communities.

In addition, the organization has partnered with the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Social Dialogue Program –Community Conversations in Cato Manor and Albert Park.