Kiara Soobrayan
JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service) Southern Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa
I will be working with the JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service) Southern Africa. In addition to my work with them, I will be meeting with JRS DC a few times before I leave in order to become familiar with the organization before my departure. JRS specializes in refugee rights in South Africa, providing education and services to refugees and asylum-seekers who have not had and do not have the opportunity to access basic services.
I have to admit that I am quite nervous about my time with JRS. I am a very emotionally sensitive person and I am not sure how much of a toll that working in a refugee organization will take on me. The people I have spoken to emphasize that you have to create some kind of distance between yourself and the people you are working with so as not to get emotionally overwhelmed, and I am just not certain if I am capable of creating said distance. This time with JRS will determine whether or not refugee rights will be a field that I will continue to work in for the foreseeable future.
Even though I am quite nervous about my work, I am excited to finally work in the belly of a big human rights organizations. I am quite interested in how budgeting and funding for nonprofit organizations work. Where does the money come from and how does one decide how it is spent? JRS partners with a number of research organizations all over the world, and I am curious about how this affects their funding and the projects that they take on.
I have always had a problem with Western organizations working in Africa without regard for the African context. JRS has quelled some of my reservations, especially given that the majority of the JRS staff appears to be South African. I would love to see how JRS’s global ideas and global network translate to their work in South Africa.