Catch Up with RET (January 2025)

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first edition of?Catch Up with RET for 2025! We start the year with operations in 15 countries across the world, and each month, we use this newsletter highlight our team's work, and the impact we're having on local communities and on the lives of women, girls, and youth.

Want to help us make a difference in 2025? → You donation can make an enormous impact. Among other things, $50 can...

• Help a single mother in DRC send her children to school – for the entire year.
• Support a household in Niger for the entire month.
• Double the income of a family in Peru, providing them with more nutritious food and/or better educational opportunities for their children.

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Featured Photo

This month's featured photo comes from our team in Mauritania, where we've been active since 2019. This is the story behind the photo:

In December 2024, RET in Mauritania, in collaboration with UNHCR, presented the findings of a holistic assessment of learning outcomes from students in the Mbera refugee camp. These results were presented at events in Bassiknou (Mbera), Fassala, and Nouakchott. During the presentation in Mbera, and in order to facilitate more community attendance and engagement, our teams prepared activities for local children from the primary and secondary schools that RET supports. The secondary school students here were playing a group game that involved passing multiples ball around the circle, changing directions based on the facilitator's instructions. Activities like these are intended to promote healthy social interactions and infuse the learning environment with a sense of fun to ensure that students remain engaged and, crucially, continue attending to increase their chances of finishing their studies and having a more secure future.

Impact Story

For this month’s impact story, we’re taking a look back at one of our videos from 2024 and how language can be used for a tool for empowerment. In Türkiye, our language training program is active across four provinces. Through an interactive approach with games, songs, activities, and practical lessons, this program is removing the language barrier and helping better connect host and refugee communities. Learn more about this project, and how it’s helping local communities. Watch it here.

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In Brief

We're on the ground in 15 countries. Here's what we've been up to in just a few of them over the last month...

• At RET in Belize, we acknowledge that gender-based violence (GBV) and human trafficking (HT) are interconnected. Factors that make women vulnerable to GBV, such as gender discrimination, poverty, and conflict, also serve as root causes of HT. Victims of trafficking are often also victims of GBV. Follow for more.
• Through the distribution of essential learning materials as part of an Education Cannot Wait (ECW) program, RET is giving students the tools they need to thrive in Burundi, Makamba province. The initiative, carried out in partnership with local education authorities, also highlighted the impact of RET’s teacher training on creating child-friendly, supportive classrooms.? Scheduled.
• In November, RET in Venezuela participated in the Reforestation program in the Caricuao Zoological Recreational Park (Capital District), with other strategic allies such as Arboambiente and the Civil Corps of Park Rangers of INPARQUES, as part of the actions to offset the carbon footprint, reaffirming the commitment to limit the impact of our consumption, contributing to environmental sustainability. Read more on the situation.
• In DRC, through a Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) funded project, RET is working to improve food security by empowering local farmers with skills and resources for sustainable agriculture. The successful cabbage harvest is just one example of how community members are putting their training to use, promoting healthy, nutritious diets in North Kivu in DRC. Scheduled.

Longer Reads

Here's a roundup of a couple articles that take a deeper dive into our work.

• In Mauritania’s Mbera refugee camp, women from diverse communities and organizations came together during the #16Days of Activism campaign, uniting their voices and efforts to confront gender-based violence and create pathways for change. “I Refuse to Stay Silent”: For Zainebou, a member of the Women’s Resource Association in Mbera, the conversation hit close to home: “These exchanges taught me so much. We learned how to better recognize cases of GBV and saw just how much dedication is needed to defend the rights of women and girls. It’s heartbreaking to see what happens in our communities, the violence, the injustices that strip women of their dignity. Read the full article here.
• In the heart of Birni Kobéri, a village located 20 kilometers from the Hamdallaye commune in Niger, hope thrives through education and empowerment. Thanks to the BMZ-funded project dedicated to promoting girls’ access to and retention in quality primary and secondary education, implemented by the national NGO?SongES?with technical support from?RET Germany, this community has experienced remarkable transformations in its schools and among its students. Yet, the success of this initiative would not have been possible without the contributions of?women mentors, a group of extraordinary community leaders committed to guiding and inspiring the village’s young girls. Among them stands the passionate and dedicated?Mme Hadjo Hassane, a 37-year-old housewife and mother of four children, whose efforts have become a cornerstone of Birni Kobéri’s educational progress. ?See how she’s empowering the next generation.

That's it for this edition of Catch Up with RET, but before we close...

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CC: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency , Yield Giving , Lever for Change , Pivotal Ventures , Zayed Sustainability Prize , The Rockefeller Foundation , UBS Optimus Foundation , AGENCIA ESPA?OLA DE COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL PARA EL DESARROLLO - AECID , USAID , USAID - Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance , European Commission , 世界银行 , The World Bank Group , African Union , African Union Development Agency-NEPAD , African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) , Education Cannot Wait (ECW) , Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies , Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) , Bloomberg Philanthropies , COMESA Secretariat , ECOWAS Commission , ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) , International Olympic Committee – IOC , Olympic Refuge Foundation , 美国国务院 , Rotary International , Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc. , Ren