Refugees United Joins Online Movement Global Voices
March 3, 2014 – From the first days of Refugees United’s founding, our belief that everyone has a right to know where their family is has guided not only our own work but also our partnerships. How can we, for example, be of service to families who have fled violence and arrived in foreign countries with languages they have never spoken?
To fulfill our mandate to help any separated family reconnect, we needed a partner who could help us reach any family, in any language. That partner came in the form of a unique, online mobilizing nonprofit called Global Voices, with whom Refugee United began working in 2013.
Founded in 2005 by former CNN Beijing and Tokyo Bureau Chief, Rebecca MacKinnon and technologist and Africa expert, Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices began as a simple blog. Bloggers with a commitment to ensuring that unheralded news stories were given a global voice volunteered to write, share, and translate stories the traditional media ignored.
Since its founding, Global Voices has evolved into an online community of over 800 bloggers, reporting news from 167 countries, and providing information in 35 languages. Over the years they have partnered with major international news organizations such as Reuters, the BBC and The New York Times as well as countless non-profit organizations, the UNFPA and UNESCO.
In 2013, they partnered with Refugees United to translate blog posts, text messages, and SMS notifications to help ensure that a language barrier would not prevent families from reconnecting.
“We want people to understand each other across borders, and to inspire citizens to use the internet and technology to make the world better,” says Managing Editor of Global Voices Solana Larsen. “We are thrilled to support Refugees United in solving very practical and crucial communication challenges for reaching out to isolated communities.”
Adds Director of Global Communication and Strategy Ida Jeng, “On Global Voices platform, we see global net citizen rally around social causes. Our partnership with them is evidence of how we can reach even more families by collaborating with their powerful network of translators and bloggers.”
Global Voices has already provided extensive translation in the first two months of 2014, including outreach material in Swahili, French, Somali, Amharic, Sudanese Arabic and Standard Arabic. They have also served as trusted advisors, ensuring that we craft our messages in ways that are not only clear but also culturally appropriate. As Refugees United moves towards our goal of connecting one million families by 2015, we will continue to look to Global Voices to ensure that a language barrier leaves no one behind.
By Carolyn Nash, Communications Coordinator for Refugees United (cn@refunite.org).
