In this blog post, REFUNITE’s Co-CEO and  Co-Founder Christopher Mikkelsen sheds light on how the recent partnership with Ericsson, Zain Group and The International Rescue Committee (IRC) will harness technology to reconnect separated families in South Sudan.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, has been in turmoil nearly since its inception in 2011. Before that, long stretches of vicious violence between the South and North had been the cause of abject misery and deep-rooted fear for millions of people, causing many of them to flee. 

My brother David and I visited Juba back when the vote for the secession was held, and felt the palpable tension and confusion that ran through the city.

The tension was manifest in the eyes of all the young soldiers who guarded every street corner, seemingly unsure what they were supposed to protect against.

Rifles were lifted to aim far too quickly, and far too slow to come down again.

Simultaneously, we have been present in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and in camps in Northern Uganda, where tens of thousands of South Sudanese have fled in search of safety: first from the militias of the North, and secondly from the internecine conflict between the Dinka and Nuer tribes.

In these camps, we have helped thousands of refugees who have lost contact with their loved ones to register for REFUNITE’s family tracing service; many families have been reconnected on the platform, some after several years of separation. Now we close the loop by emerging in South Sudan.

The challenges in South Sudan are enormous; a country with barely 50 km of paved road, a nascent government, years of chaos and extreme violence, low to non-existent educational levels, all of which is compounded by a largely unforgiving environment of extreme heat and drought.

Leveraging each of our strengths, the partnership will see IRC and REFUNITE work side by side in the camps for the displaced, while Zain will extend its reach across the entire country of South Sudan, and Ericsson will continuously contribute to the further development of the service.

Many places are inaccessible to aid organizations because of security concerns and enormous distances to cross but this is where Zain comes in beautifully. REFUNITE has developed its family tracing tools to be accessible on every mobile device, taking into account the lack of smart phones and data access in South Sudan.

Through Zain’s network of more than 700,000 subscribers, we will launch nationwide SMS campaigns informing refugees of the service, and then provide free-of-charge access back to the system. In short, a displaced person separated from loved ones can simply send their name via a text to see if they are registered with REFUNITE.

With already more than 30,000 South Sudanese registered, the chances of reconnections are significant from the get-go. People will also be able to register through SMS but for many illiterate people within the camps, it is still a challenge. This is where the IRC comes in.

The International Rescue Committee has wide expertise working inside some of the world’s most hostile environments, and will be invaluable in helping the program get a foothold inside camps in South Sudan.

With our partners at the camps, our teams will engage with the refugee leadership and work from house to house, assisting those separated from loved ones to sign up for the family tracing service..

Few things are more devastating than losing contact with your family. Caught in places of unspeakable hardship and violence, few have the resources to track down the whereabouts of their loved ones. With this partnership, we hope to make a lasting impact in the lives of many South Sudanese.

Connect with Christopher: cm@refunite.org

Twitter: @refunitedotorg