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…
Jan 31 14
Refugees United and Tanzania Red Cross Society To Assist Families in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp
To help reconnect separated refugee families around the world, Refugees United and Tanzania Red Cross Society are thrilled to announce a new partnership that will assist separated Congolese families to search, connect and communicate. The mobile operation is currently in the preparatory phases, and will roll out officially on March 1st 2014 in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Tanzania, home to more than 68,000 refugees. A natural symbiosis of technological skill and on-the-ground staff, Refugees United and Tanzania Red Cross Society are working to ensure families can take the search for missing loved ones into their own hands through the…
Dec 31 13
Refugees United tops 250,000 users
Christopher and David Mikkelsen, co-founders of Refugees United, reflect on key milestones in 2013 that brought Refugees United closer to its goal of bringing one million refugees onto the platform by 2015. More than a quarter of a million refugees and forcibly displaced people worldwide are now registered on the mobile phone family-tracing platform pioneered by Refugees United. That’s five times the number our organization reached in October 2011. This milestone comes at a time when more than 45 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world. In the face of widespread forced displacement, Refugees United and partners worked…
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…
Dec 2 13
Refugees United, Google+, Mashable, Google Kenya and UNHCR to partner on #GivingTuesday.
On Tuesday, December 3, 2013 10AM EST, Refugees United is joining Google+, Mashable and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as one of the partners in the first ever live “Hangout-a-thon,” a 12-hour event on Google+ that will feature content from a variety of nonprofits, celebrities, and socially responsible businesses. The initiative is part of #GivingTuesday, a nationwide effort in the US to inspire people to give back to their communities and to raise awareness about nonprofit organizations that work to give back everyday. Building on Refugees United’s successful Google+ Hangouts On Air Series entitled #FamilyIs, Refugees United and partners will participate in…
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