The first week of February was a special week for Refugees United, as this week saw our second hackathon of the year #HackForGood take place at the StartUp garage in Nairobi, Kenya. Here talented developers from both Kenya and Denmark worked intensely together for a whole week to improve Refugees United’s search tools. This event saw the developments of some great applications, which will increase the accessibility of Refugees United’s platform considerably. The specific outcomes were applications enabling searches via SMS and USSD, meaning that anyone will be able to search for long lost family from any low-cost mobile device very soon.  Searching…

Climate change, financial crises, immigration, energy shortage, sustainable development, terrorism, … – there seem to be no end to the list of current global issues. The need for novel and creative solutions which social innovation foster consequently can’t be stressed enough. It was therefore with great pleasure that Refugees United accepted the request to hold the keynote speech at the Danish Social Innovation Club’s (DANSIC) annual conference DANSIC13: IMPACT #DANSIC13.  Here Communications and Relations Office, Claudia Simler, and CEO, Jens Briksten spoke behalf of Refugees United, about how the non-profit world can utilize business strategies to create lasting impact. DANSIC is a…

Together with the Somali radio station Radio Ergo, Refugees United commences radio campaign, targeting the many Somalis who have lost contact with family and friends during the war. Radio Ergo is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and produces humanitarian news for the Somali-speaking region, much of which is life-saving information for Somali families.  As part of the radio campaign, Radio Ergo will broadcast short radio spots for families who have lost contact with missing loved ones. The aim is to reach out to families in war-torn Somalia and let them know that they can search for family via www.refunite.org. Furthermore, a live Sunday…

There is renewed hope for the many refugees in the Kenyan refugee camps, Kakuma and Dadaab, who have lost contact with family and friends. In Dadaab alone there are about 400,000 refugees, with a significant share living in uncertainty about the whereabouts of their loved ones. Refugees United and Kenyan Red Cross (KRCS) recently signed a new partnership agreement including a total of 60 outreach officers. These will be assisting refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma to sign up on Refugees United’s online platform and search for their missing family and friends. The project aims to get a total number of…

In 1996, the Congolese village Uvira– like many other villages during the DRC War – was attacked. It was the Munyamulenge tribe that was being targeted by an unidentified armed group from the Murundi tribe, who were looking for young boys to join their rebel army, slaughtering people mercilessly on their way. Early that morning, Estelle* had gone to fetch some water for her family and five children. When she returned to the village, women, men and children were in total panic. The rebel soldiers were drunk or under the influence of drugs, showing no mercy when raiding the village…