Union of Refugee Women

Who the URW Serves

The URW works primarily with refugee, asylum-seeking, and migrant women in Durban — particularly those in the Point, Esplanade, and central Durban areas, where a significant proportion of Durban's refugee population is concentrated. Membership is open to women of all racial and religious backgrounds, though most of the URW's women are socially marginalised refugee women including asylum seekers, young women, and adolescent girls.

Children Care Centre

The Children Care Centre is currently the URW's primary programme — a formal non-profit early childhood development facility serving the children of working refugee mothers and other vulnerable children in the community. The centre enrolls children monthly and provides: early education for pre-school children; nursing and caring for children aged 0–6 while their parents are working; meals and nutritional support throughout the day; and behavioural and disciplinary formation in a structured, loving environment. By providing reliable, quality childcare, the centre enables refugee mothers to work and generate income — addressing the economic dependency that keeps many women in abusive situations or vulnerable to exploitation.

TACBVWR: Together Against GBV and for Women Rights

The TACBVWR project is the URW's explicit GBV response programme. Its objectives include: promoting women's rights and their effective participation in finding solutions to their challenges; advocating for women's empowerment and integration into the social fabric with dignity; promoting the end of domestic violence and its destructive impact on families and children; creating harmonious and balanced family environments; and contributing to the self-reliance and moral rehabilitation of women.

Critically, the URW recognises the specific barriers that refugee women face in accessing mainstream GBV services: language barriers, fear of exposure to immigration authorities, cultural unfamiliarity, and deep-seated distrust of police. The URW's staff are multilingual, refugee-led, and trusted by the community in a way that mainstream South African institutions are not. Women come to the URW with GBV situations precisely because they will not go to the police — and the URW provides a culturally safe, confidential alternative: counselling, advice, mediation, and referral to partner organisations where more specialised help is needed.

Cultural Dance Groups

The URW hosts two cultural dance groups — Congolese and Rwandan — that serve a dual purpose the organisation describes with striking honesty: income generation and trauma therapy. Through paid performances at cultural events around KZN, refugee women are able to showcase traditional dances from their home countries, generating income and economic autonomy while building pride and visibility for their cultures in South Africa. At the same time, the women themselves testify that engaging in traditional dance alleviates the psychological weight of traumatic past experiences — the memories of conflict, displacement, and loss that exile does not erase. Movement, rhythm, and cultural practice become pathways to healing that formal therapy alone cannot always provide.

Catering Group

The Catering Group offers refugee women the opportunity to provide traditional meals from their home countries at events and cultural holidays such as Heritage Day — generating income while creating a platform for cultural visibility and connection.

Advocacy and Mission

The URW's mission is framed around both self-support and community impact: to assist women in becoming self-supporting, and to have a positive impact on the community at large. Its broader advocacy goals include raising awareness of women's plight; aspiring for, fighting for, and achieving gender equality; promoting women's effective participation in decision-making processes; and advocating for the creation of enabling social environments in which women can live with dignity as equal members of the social fabric.

Relevance to GBV Survivors

For refugee, asylum-seeking, or migrant women in Durban who have experienced domestic violence or other forms of GBV, the URW is one of the few organisations specifically equipped to provide culturally appropriate, multilingual, and immigration-sensitive support. Its TACBVWR project, its counselling and mediation capacity, and its network of referral partners make it a meaningful first point of contact for women who will not — and for good reason cannot safely — approach mainstream South African institutions. For social workers and GBV organisations working with foreign nationals in eThekwini, the URW is an essential community partner.

Union of Refugee Women: 25 Bay Terrace, Esplanade Road, Durban, 4001, KZN. Phone: +27 31 332 6265 / +27 76 552 6930. Email: saurw1@gmail.com / info@urefugeewomen.org.za. Website: urefugeewomen.org.za.