Asylum Access

Leader Testimonies from the Sustained Advocacy for Empowered Refugees Project

Asylum Access partnered with the University of Cape Town Law Clinic (UCT) to provide an informational outreach program to refugees in South Africa. Entitled Sustained Advocacy for Empowered Refugees (SAFER), this program not only disemminates information to refugees but also builds community leaders. Refugees who commit to attending a certain percentage of workships, speak the local language and who pledge to work for their community earn leadership certificates and will serve as liasons and consultants for other refugees facing human rights violations.

Below are five testimonies collected from graduates of the SAFER program. These testimonies of refugee leaders were taken by Vinita Kamath, a law student intern at the UCT Refugee Rights project, and Deji Olukotun, Director of the SAFER project. To make the leaders more comfortable, Vinita interviewed the women and Deji interviewed the men. The testimonies of the women are written in the third person and the men in the first person. Names have been changed for the women.

A Refugee's Testimony: "Sara"

A Refugee's Testimony: "Monica"

A Refugee's Testimony: "Francine"

A Refugee's Testimony: "Samuel"

A Refugee's Testimony: "Mohamed"