This month, Refugees United began a program in Eastleigh, a predominantly Somali neighbourhood just outside of Nairobi. With more than a million Somali Refugees spread throughout Kenya, countless stories of conflict, drought and famine have torn families apart. The program in Eastleigh was created to help as many people as possible find their missing loved ones.  

To achieve this, project lead and Refugees United Ambassador, Farhiya Shazz, spoke to students receiving education from the local non-profit organization, Kobciye, about our program and asked for their help. Eager to give back to their community as Kobciye has done for them, 16 students offered to join our team.

A Somali Refugee herself, separated from her family in Kakuma Refugee Camp when she was just a child, Farhiya truly understands how important it is to know where your family is. Speaking about the program she said, “I am grateful to these volunteers for working so hard to help us reach people in the community we were not able to reach before.”

After 10 hours of training, the volunteers began registering people looking for family using their mobile phones. Volunteers walk from house to house to create awareness about the Refugees United tool, help people create accounts, search for their loved ones, and send messages. The Volunteers also hold community forums to spread awareness on a large scale.

Working as un-paid volunteers, the Eastleigh volunteers showed their communities how important Refugees United is in family tracing—empowering the user with a global database accessible anytime and anywhere. With hard work and dedication, the volunteers were able to help 600 people looking for family in their first week of work. After receiving praise from Refugees United staff for their help, one volunteer responded “We are not only helping you, we are helping our community and we are so happy.”

Users can access our search tool by visiting www.refunite.org, without internet through their mobile phone by dialling *883#, or through our toll-free call center based in Nairobi, Kenya: 0800 724 882.

Everyone has the right to know where their family is. The work of our volunteers could make that dream a reality in their communities. We are thrilled this program has been so successful and hope to replicate this success across our operations in East Africa to help more people find their missing loved ones.

For questions please contact East Africa Project Coordinator, Rebecca Wainess: Rewa@refunite.org +254 713 079 261