our unique proposition

Protecting refugees and finding solutions for their problems is a shared global responsibility. At the RET we provide Relief Education in Transition. We are committed to providing education and self-reliance to youth at a most vulnerable age and time, bridging the gap between emergency relief for displaced youth while in exile and providing development solutions in the home country, during and after the repatriation process. While many intergovernmental organisations and their partnering non-governmental organisations offer protection, food, water, and primary education, virtually none exclusively offer secondary or post-primary education. The RET is in a unique position to bring together those who can help to those in need.

In the situation of displacement, we believe in addressing the root of the problem and in finding solutions that involve local capacity building and are sustainable, thus empowering the communities, and those we help directly, to actively participate in the decision-making. We believe in teaching youth to become self-reliant through life skills, relevant marketable trades that will foster autonomy , and peaceful conflict resolution. We believe in self-help schools and in a market-based approach engaging parents, teachers and the community in the decisions associated with the education of their youth. The RET's choices in programmes, approaches to education and implementing partners all contribute to durable solutions, sustainable development, voluntary repatriation, reconstruction, and sustainable peace and stability in the affected regions in the world. We do not believe in perpetuating dependencies.

We warrant that our programmes apply holistic and innovative approaches to formal and non-formal education, ensuring that displaced youth are either trained in classical education per the approved curriculum of their host or home country or in marketable trades, literacy and numeracy.

Typically, intergovernmental organisations and governments allocate funding for displaced yuoth in emergencies and/or for education as development. The crying need for post-primary education of refugee youth falls between the two types of budget lines, thus further complicating the realities of the conflict situations. The RET facilitates bridging this existing and widely recognised “gap” where refugee youth fall between emergency and development solutions.