CWS Resettlement Support Center, Nairobi, Kenya

Refugees about to leave Nairobi for resettlement in the United States in Cultural Orientation class. Photo: Carol Fouke-Mpoyo/CWS

Musa Gitau Road, Off Waiyaki Way
P. O. Box 14176
Nairobi, Westlands, Kenya 00800

The Church World Service-administered Resettlement Support Center (formerly "Overseas Processing Entity" or "OPE") based in Nairobi, Kenya, is responsible for processing the cases of refugees in sub-Saharan Africa who are being considered for resettlement to the United States through the U.S. refugee program.  The RSC also provides Cultural Orientation to refugees accepted for resettlement to the United States.

Prior to May 2010, refugee case processing in sub-Saharan Africa was handled by two RSCs, both of them CWS-administered, under Cooperative Agreements with the U.S. Department of State.  The CWS RSC/Nairobi was responsible for refugee case processing throughout Eastern and Southern Africa, and the CWS RSC/Accra, Ghana, for Western and Central Africa.

In May 2010, the CWS RSC/Accra was closed and its operations assumed by CWS RSC/Nairobi.

From its establishment in 1990 through September 31, 2011, CWS RSC/Nairobi assisted 168,006 refugees to depart to the United States, 6,387 of them in FY 2011.  Before it closed, CWS RSC/Accra assisted nearly 38,000 refugees to depart to the United States.