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The African Refugee Development Center

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The African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) is a registered Israeli nongovernmental organization established to promote the human rights of African refugees and asylum seekers in Israel. We promote community building among refugees and we give direct social and legal assistance to individual refugees. In addition, we use public campaigning and advocacy to enhance the rights of refugees in Israel. Our governing board includes representatives of several African refugee communities, individual African refugees as well as Israeli citizens.

Our work is based on the principle of mutual aid and refugee empowerment: refugees helping refugees.

About Us

Our mission

The African Refugee Development Center, founded in 2004, is a registered non-governmental and non-profit organization in Israel established to promote the human rights of African refugees and asylum seekers (Amuta no. 580420271).

We promote community building among refugees and we give direct social and legal assistance to individual refugees. In addition, we use public campaigning and advocacy to enhance the rights of refugees in Israel. We help asylum seekers and refugees regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented.

Our governing board includes representatives of several African refugee communities, individual African refugees as well as Israeli citizens. Currently, our board includes refugees from Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and other countries. In the coming weeks we will welcome representatives of the newly established Sudanese and Eritrean communities.

Our work is based on the principle of mutual aid and refugee empowerment: refugees helping refugees.

Our vision and values

We see as vital the protection of people fleeing from war, torture, religious and political persecution and other inhumane atrocities. Our work is motivated by moral urgency and anchored in international human rights and refugee law.

Our goals

§ Advocating a comprehensive and fair Israeli asylum policy that meets the demands of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention as well as relevant international human rights instruments. This includes access to a fair asylum procedure, the right to legal counsel and access to an independent appeal for every asylum seeker

§ Ensuring basic living conditions and promoting basic rights, including access to medical services, work, education and housing for asylum seekers and refugees

§ Empowering asylum seekers and refugees through encouraging their mutual assistance and cooperation

§ Facilitating the social integration and cultural transition of asylum seekers and refugees in Israel and promoting their civic, socio-economic and cultural integration

Board & Staff

Board of Directors

The African Refugee Development Center is guided by a governing board that includes recognized refugees, asylum seekers as well as Israeli activists and refugee experts.

The Board meets around six times a year in Tel Aviv. Our board members are not paid for their work.

Staff

Yohannes Lemma Bayu, Director

Phone: +972 54 6816 333

Email: yohannes@ardc-israel.org

Biography: He received his first degree in Social Sciences from the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He specialized on HIV/AIDS prevention and counseling, and worked for non-governmental organizations in administrative positions for seven years before he came to Israel as a refugee.

Alice Nagele, Activities Coordinator (Volunteer)

Phone: +972 54 6388 633

Email: alice@ardc-israel.org

Biography: She received her law degree (magistra juris) in 2005 from
the University of Vienna, Austria. She worked as a protection clerk for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Austria. She worked as a human rights advisor for the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations in New York and clerked for Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch in the Israeli Supreme Court in 2006/07.

Our Activities

1. Refugee Community Building

Networking among refugee communities - We link individual refugees to the different African refugee communities
Refugee self-organization – We establish formal and informal frameworks of coordination of refugee communities. We facilitate initiatives or refugee self-organization. Currently, we are supporting refugees from Sudan and Eritrea to form refugee communities by providing them legal assistance and practical advice.
Capacity building – We promote refugee unity. We help refugee communities grow and serve their communities

2. Social and Legal Assistance

Legal aid and representation - We provide legal aid and represent individuals before various state authorities
Individual advice and support - We help asylum seekers and refugees to access medical care, housing, work and education through personal assistance and referral to other human rights organizations.
Networking with non-governmental organizations - We collaborate closely with other human rights organizations in finding comprehensive solutions for the needs of asylum seekers and refugees. ARDC has been initiating the creation of a network among activists and human rights organizations all over the country. The objectives are to co-ordinate the political work of the organization and information sharing.

3. Basic Assistance for Newly Arrived Asylum Seekers

Humanitarian assistance – We organize food, clothing and other urgent items for newly arrived asylum seekers in Israel. We help asylum seekers organize their lives themselves. In the last three months, we offered these services to over 360 asylum seekers.
Emergency accommodation - We provide emergency and short-term accommodation for asylum seekers. Between June and August 2007, we have been accommodating over 320 asylum seekers in two shelters.

4. Refugee Rights Campaigning and Advocacy

Raising public awareness - We campaign and lobby for refugees’ voices to be heard in Israel and abroad through publications in various media, public events and distribution of information leaflets. We provide accurate information on refugee issues
Advocating before decision-makers - We advocate directly before decision makers to promote the rights of refugees and a comprehensive and fair asylum policy in Israel

Basic Reception Assistance Project

Since the beginning of 2007, the number of African refugees forced to leave their homelands in fear of their lives and safety, has been rising dramatically in Israel. Though Israel signed the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, it does not implement its recommendations. In particular, the process regarding applications for asylum is opaque, unclear and often seemingly arbitrary, with refugees recently deported even without an asylum interview. Within Israel, there are no statutory facilities to absorb refugees; in general, refugees are installed in military prisons, where they wait, often for months, while their cases are being reviewed. Those who are released, are simply released onto the street. Very often no one to assume responsibility for them.

Given the rapidly increasing number of asylum seekers, ARDC opened two shelters for newly arrived refugees in Israel. The services that ARDC has been offering include housing, food, legal assistance and access to health care. Since June, ARDC has been accommodating over 350 asylum seekers from Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Somalia and other African countries. In addition, ARDC currently provides these services to several dozen of refugee that live outside of the shelters.

Challenges

Providing over hundred refugees with the most urgent items, in particular food, is a constant challenge. Also, financing the rent of the two shelters remains a problem. We might close one shelter in the coming month, if we are not finding some donations for the rent.

The activities of ARDC only may expand if ARDC opens its own office where it can provide refugees and refugee communities with its services. ARDC is in urgent need of a multifunctional space that functions as an office, a place where a broad range of activities can take place (such as language classes, computer classes, meetings of the refugee communities) and where some individual refugees in housing crisis may be accommodated. In addition, with an office, the potential of dozens of people who are eager to volunteer could be fully used.

Donations

We rely upon the generosity of donors to achieve our goals. With your support, we can maintain our current program and expand our projects further, and help to give asylum seekers and refugees in Israel the protection they need. Donations to the African Refugees Development Center can be made in one of the following ways:

In Israel

You can send your check or money order to The African Refugees Development Center, Oley Hagardom Street 503/7, Jerusalem 93801

Kindly let us know of the check by email to yohannes@ardc-israel.org or by fax +972 2 672 0558

In the USA and Canada

The African Refugees Development Center in Israel is registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization with the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. Tax-deductible contributions can be made via the following sponsors:

§ U.S. tax deductible contributions of at least $100 may be made via the New Israel Fund (IRS # 94-2607722). Contributions should be marked as donor-advised to The African Refugees Development Center and send to The New Israel Fund, 1101 14th St. NW, Sixth Floor, P.O. Box 91588, Washington DC 20090-1588, USA.

§ U.S. tax deductible contributions of at least $25 may be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., (IRS # 13-6104086), 317 Madison Avenue, Suite 607, New York, NY, 10017, USA with a recommendation that it be used for ARDC.

In the UK

§ Tax-deductible contributions can be made via the The New Israel Fund of Great Britain (#1060081), 25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW England, UK.

If you wish to discuss your contribution with us, please contact Yohannes Bayu, Director, at info@ardc-israel.org or by phone, at +972 / 2 672 0558.

Acknowledgement

The African Refugees Development Center is a non-profit organization that works on the basis of donations and funds of organizations and individuals.

We are grateful to our current and past donors:

The New Israel Fund

Anonymous donors

Recent Press Releases

The refugee road

Haaretz, 19 August, 2007 http://www.haaretz.com:80/hasen/spages/894794.html (English)

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