May 1 14
May 1, 2014 — No one understands the day-to-day work of connecting refugees better than REFUNITE’s Outreach Volunteers, who work directly with separated families to provide the support they need to register themselves and their missing loved ones. Follow our new video series, in which our Outreach Volunteers, who are refugees themselves, describe their work, their personal experiences as refugees, and the dedication they feel to ensuring that everyone has access to REFUNITE’s family-tracing platform. Above is the first installment of our Outreach Volunteer interviews. Watch these dedicated men and women share their stories in their own voices. CONTACT…
Dec 9 13
Refugees United and FilmAid to Screen Films in Refugee Camps Across Africa
Family separation represents an often-overlooked emotional burden facing the estimated 45 million people forcibly displaced by war, conflict, or disaster. In addition to the homes they have been forced to leave behind, a staggering percentage lose contact with friends and family in their scramble for food, shelter and safety. Refugees United and FilmAid have partnered to produce a new TV campaign for separated refugee families. This pilot project aims to harness the power of television to reconnect separated refugee families. Filming interviews in Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya, where Refugees United maintains a mobile family-tracing programme, together with the…
Nov 3 11
WIRED 2011 Conference
Having just returned from a whirlwind two and a half days of Wired11 conference in London I’m chock-full of inspiration and lingering thoughts from wicked conversations. Presided over by David Rowan and a rocking Wired team, the setting was picture perfect, taking up parts of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel with all its old-world charm of booking offices, arrival halls and a busy-quiet atmosphere. Some 300 people attended from the worlds of advertising and startups, tech, biotech and the media, with everyone in a beautiful mishmash of thoughts and conversations across all Olympic thought-disciplines. While all talks were fascinating and…
Oct 6 11
Dadaab, Aug. 2011
Descending through the thin layer of clouds, the arid landscape of Dadaab appears below, pockmarked by the blue tents of the UNHCR hosting weary refugees. As we approach the short landing strip, the warm winds rising rattle the little propeller plane, dipping the wings on either side. Having left behind chilly Nairobi at 6 am, the warmth of Dadaab is a brief respite for my freezing toes, though soon, I, along with everyone else, wish for cooler weather – even during this winter “chill.” I disembark with a flurry of butterflies and head off to greet our partners, the wonderful…
Aug 11 11
Refugees United – Chapter 15
True to fashion in how David and I had lived our lives up to this moment, everything happened, resonated – and without much thought we threw our passion behind the quest of finding Mansour’s family. An echo between rationale and raucousness has determined our lives so far, and it has led us to deeply engaging and interesting moments, however heartbreaking some of them have been. Such is the liberty I suppose, for those fortunate enough to have been born into the luxury of freedom. I’m not sure what we expected to find in Moscow, nor what we expected may…
Jul 27 11
Refugees United – Chapter 14
One of the challenges of heading to Russia was getting an entry visa. Mansour was still waiting for his “official” Danish passport, known for its color as the red beet, traveling under a blue, temporary one. This alone made it difficult to get a visa. Moreover, per Russian requirements you need an invitation from a hotel, and a reason for your visit. Two longhaired broke guys and an Afghan refugee didn’t, it seem, make for optimal tourists. However, through our stint working as teachers with immigrants and refugees, we were able to claim it a study trip and obtain the…
Jul 20 11
Refugees United – Chapter 13
A heavy stone fell from the hearts of both when they found each other. A sense of belonging, of not being completely alone anymore, was how they described the feelings that milled about. Unfortunately, the answer to each of the brothers’ first question on the whereabouts of the rest of the family was that neither knew anything. However, they had found each other, and that provided some hope. With the reunion’s glow waning after a few days, reality came barging through the door. Mansour learned that, while “luck” had graced his life after Peshawar, Ali had been less fortunate. Sold…
Jul 14 11
Refugees United – Chapter 12, Peshawar pt. 2
Mansour left the house to meet the trafficker, anxious to learn any news. The guy had shared with him the previous day that he might be able to unearth information about one of Mansour’s brothers, Ali. Stepping into the trafficker’s office took immeasurable courage on behalf of Mansour, and we’re still dumbfounded as to how he racked up the nerve to question, to push this criminal that had much evil on his conscience. But push he did, and after bribing him even more, learned that his one younger brother, Ali, 9-years-old last they had seen each other, now lived in…
Jul 12 11
Refugees United – Chapter 11, Peshawar
After months and months of seemingly no action or results, David, Mansour and I decided to try and take things into our own hands. At this stage Mansour had grown in courage and in his desire to unearth any information possible about what had happened to his family. He reached the decision to travel back to Peshawar in search of answers and of people who might assist him in his quest. Not a small feat, considering his young age, returning to the place and people who separated him from loved ones 5 years earlier. Peshawar is a hustle and bustle…
Mar 11 11
Juba, South Sudan, Feb. 8th 2011
Pushing 43 degrees Celsius, this is actually the “cold” season for South Sudan. Hairdryer hot is the first word that comes to my mind. Arriving in Juba on Feb. 7th for a short stay was a privileged invite to the birth of a new nation; exciting, with a dash of Bambi-legs. It shone clearly from the eyes of most officials who’d been official less than a few hours: “What the hell am I doing here?” Refugees United was in town with UNHCR Uganda, paying a visit to the UNHCR Sudan field office in Juba to discuss family tracing through Refugees…
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