Apr 15 14
Congolese Siblings Reconnect after Years of Separation
The story below was recalled by Congolese refugees Belle* and Marie.* The details described are accurate to the best of their recollection. Imagine surviving violent civil unrest only to discover that your sister is missing. Imagine your search for her yields only evidence that she has perished in her attempt to escape. Imagine drawing strength from your one remaining sibling as you arrange for her funeral and perform a traditional burial ceremony in her honor. And imagine learning more than a decade later that the sister whose funeral you arranged is alive and well in the United States. This is…
Apr 4 14
A Mother’s 5 Year Search for Her Daughter
The story below was recalled by Somali refugee Binti. The details described are accurate to the best of her recollection. The REFUNITE mobile application described below is available only to adult (over 18) members of separated families in search of loved ones. This is the story of Binti* – mother of three adult children, victim of war, and refugee – and of her reconnection with her oldest daughter Filan.* After years of searching, Binti discovered REFUNITE and used the mobile family-tracing platform to locate her daughter. For five years, Binti lived in fear that her children were lost forever. Residents…
Apr 3 14
April 3, 2014 — Last week, REFUNITE’s tech team traveled to Eastleigh, Nairobi for a user testing focus group with Somali refugees who were accessing the platform for the first time. Watch this short video to see our team in action, growing our user base while learning how to refine our mobile application and serve even more refugees. More than fifteen Somali refugees joined our focus group to learn how they could take the search for their missing loved ones into their own hands. Video by Carolyn Nash, Communications Coordinator for REFUNITE (cn@refunite.org) (Source: https://refunite.org/)
Mar 28 14
Outreach and Awareness Forum in Ruiru, Kenya
March 28, 2014 — Outreach Coordinator and Community Ambassador Farhiya Shazz Hussein recently participated in a UNCHR-organized outreach campaign in Ruiru, Kenya. The forum provided information to urban refugees living outside of Nairobi in efforts to ensure that all refugees in Kenya have access to the services they need. In response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, the outreach focused on attracting South Sudanese refugees, who are fleeing the country at a rate of nearly 2,000 people per day, according to UNHCR. Above, Farhiya explains the Refugees United platform and encourages participants to register themselves and their missing…
Mar 24 14
Harnessing the Power of Radio to Reconnect Families
March 24, 2014 — “Radio has been my dream since I began working on my undergraduate degree,” Audrey Wabwire says. She flashes an infectious smile, her blue nail polish glistening as her hand trails through the air. “I loved it so much – I could create so many things and reach people who lived in places I’d never been.” Audrey is an immediately inviting personality, smiling warmly over her cappuccino as she recalls the professional and academic path she’s followed to arrive as Refugees United’s Radio Producer based in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is closing in on her two-year anniversary.…
Mar 4 14
Mobile Outreach in Kenya’s “Little Mogadishu”
Carolyn Nash, Communications Coordinator, reports on her recent trip to Eastleigh, Nairobi. March 3, 2014 — On a recent Friday morning, I met IT Director Julie Rix Bagger, on visit from Copenhagen, in Eastleigh, the oft-described “Little Mogadishu” of Kenya, to observe the door-to-door activities that our outreach team operates on a daily basis. Our guide, Refugees United (RU) Outreach Coordinator Farhiya Hussein, joined us just outside her home, flashing a relaxed smile as she prepared to do what she does everyday: register refugees in search of missing loved ones. Farhiya, a Somali refugee herself who moved to Kenya when…
Mar 4 14
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,…
Feb 28 14
Finding a Smarter Way to Search for the Missing
February 28, 2014 – Richard Ngamita is hard at work enhancing Refugees United‘s mobile search tool used to reconnect families. What appears at first to be a complex series of data points, Richard Ngamita sees as a light that leads to a sole mission: reconnecting separated refugees families. From his office in Uganda, Richard, a Data and Analytics Project Manager whose one-year anniversary with Refugees United is only a month away, is building a more intelligent search with the rest of the tech team in Kenya and Denmark. Before joining Refugees United, Richard’s technological expertise was honed at Google, where he worked…
Feb 26 14
New Case Study on Refugees United Forges the Way for Humanitarian Innovation
BARCELONA, 26 FEBRUARY 2014 – GSMA, a global alliance of mobile operators, will release a new case study here at the 2014 Mobile World Congress detailing how innovative mobile technology is the key for the future of humanitarian aid work. Released during the panel ”Preparing for the Next Disaster,” this case study examines the work done by Refugees United and private sector partners. Refugees United, an international NGO which has developed a mobile family-tracing platform, has forged partnerships with mobile operators, resulting in the reconnection of families separated by war, conflict and disaster. With support from mobile operators in Africa…
Feb 24 14
Refugees United, Ericsson and Mobile Operators Join to Reconnect Syrian Families
PRESS RELEASE, 24 FEBRUARY 2014: Ericsson and operators in Middle East announce the launch of the Refugees United (RU) service to help reach the nearly 800,000 Syrian refugees residing in Jordan and Iraq According to the UN, an estimated 2.4 million refugees from Syria have been forced to move to surrounding countries The Refugees United family reconnection platform will be made available to Syrian families via a mobile application and toll-free lines; awareness will be created using SMS campaigns in the countries surrounding Syria The United Nations estimates that due to the crisis in Syria, people are being displaced at…
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