Africa Unite empowering youth in unity

Africa Unite was founded in 2001 in response to violence against asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in predominantly Black Township on the outskirts of Cape Town in the Western Cape. From the perspective of locals this included frustrations in relation to high levels of unemployment, a sense of abandonment and the absence of commitment by government towards local communities. In contrast, locals felt that  refugees from other African countries were living more successful lives. Although this was a misconception, it caused great resentment between local and migrant communities.  The outcome of this first session was the development of a platform for building channels of communication aimed at developing mutually supportive relationships between the two communities. This platform later became Africa Unite.


Since, Africa Unite (AU) has positioned itself as a human rights and youth empowering organisation that works with citizens, refugees and migrants to prevent conflicts, enhance social cohesion and promote social -economic development. Initially AU became an autonomous non-profit organisation in 2004 guided by the slogan 'Building Human Rights Communities'. In this regard, AU's programmatic focus lies in building human rights knowledge, skills, facilitating reciprocal learning exchanges with community-based and migrant-led structures.

Furthermore, create a platform for intercultural exchanges and dialogue between local, refugee and migrants communities in South Africa. In line with its updated strategic plan, AU put in place the following programmes:  Human Rights for Social Cohesion Programme; A capacity development programme for peer educators focusing on human rights, democratic governance and conflict prevention to bring transformation as a vehicle towards achieving social cohesion and the construction of human rights communities. Africa Unite School Club is a program designed to work with learners in underprivileged schools to create young leaders, who can think critically about their environment and make positive change providing holistic psycho-social support and after school and after- school care to children from different backgrounds infected or affected by HIV/AIDS including community, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

By: Ellouise Muller

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