REFUNITE (Refugees United) is a non-profit organization established by David and Christopher Mikkelsen, with the stated mission to "help

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

and internally displaced persons (IDPs) search for their missing loved ones." It focuses on online and mobile solutions to help families reconnect. Families can search for their missing loved ones by registering onto REFUNITE's family tracing platform. The REFUNITE family reconnection platform allows users to register, search for, and message their missing loved ones that have also signed up on the platform. REFUNITE works through partnerships with like-minded individuals, organizations, corporations, and humanitarian agencies. Its headquarters are located in Copenhagen,

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, with the main technology development lab and operations being based out of Kampala,

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History

REFUNITE was founded in 2008 by two Danish brothers, David and Christopher Mikkelsen, after their personal journey trying to reconnect a young Afghan refugee with his family. In their search, the two brothers discovered that existing family tracing programs lacked cross-border, collaborative technology, and that the process of family tracing was also often tied to cumbersome procedures and paperwork. This prompted David and Christopher to develop a global, centralized, and free platform that would allow

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

and other Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to search and reconnect with their missing family and loved ones. REFUNITE empowers refugees and separated families to search, connect, and communicate with family and friends they have lost along the way. The organization provides the family reconnection service, but puts it in the hands of its users to conduct the actual search, thus democratizing access to family tracing. Out of the 68 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, many do not have access to Internet and have very basic and simple mobile phones. REFUNITE focuses on making their service available to as many users as possible and through various touch points, from the very low-end, basic technology to the more sophisticated one. Together with

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

, REFUNITE has partnered with a global coalition of mobile network operators. Through these partnerships, the organization is able to communicate directly with millions of forcibly displaced people through SMS and make access to the platform free of charge. So far, over 1 million people have registered on the REFUNITE platform.

REFUNITE's technology

Web

The family reconnection platform can be accessed through the official website. The search tool is available in twelve languages, including

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, Swahili, Somali,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Congolese Swahili,

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
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Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī � ...

, and Tagalog. The website can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection.

Outreach volunteers

REFUNITE Outreach Volunteer with beneficiary

REFUNITE works with outreach volunteers in

Kakuma Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, established in 1992. The population of Kakuma town was 60,000 in 2014, having grown from around 8,000 in 1990. In 1991, the camp was established to hos ...

refugee camp in

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. The organization has teamed up with

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

as well as other aid organizations operating in camps in order to train local refugees on REFUNITE’s technology, so these refugees can help others sign up. Many of the outreach volunteers, who are refugees themselves, are still looking for their own families as well, and are helping others while waiting to be reconnected. They walk around the camps promoting REFUNITE’s service and help anyone interested to register and search. They are some of the most important people to REFUNITE, as they are instrumental in advocating the service and help foster trust between the organization and its beneficiaries in the camps.

Awards

* 2017 Social Entrepreneurs of The Year:

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a Swiss Non-profit, not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 that provides platforms at the country, regional and global levels to promote social entrepreneurship.Schwab Foundation for Social ...

* 2016 25 Most Daring: Condé Nast, Vanity Fair and WIRED * 2013 Prix Ars Electronica: Award of Distinction in the category Digital Communities * 2013 Lovie Award: Lost and Found - The Story of Refugees United * 2012 Webby Award Winner: Lost and Found - The Story of Refugees United *2011 PopTech: Social Innovation Fellows *2008 3 Mobile Pioneer Award

Partners

Corporate partners

REFUNITE’s corporate partners include, among others, mobile network operators that enable the organization to communicate directly with refugees and send text messages to their phones. REFUNITE’s partners are: *

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

* Safaricom in Kenya * Vodacom DRC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo *

Telesom Telesom is a private telecommunication company established in 2002 by local entrepreneurs in Hargeisa, Somaliland. It is the leading provider of ICT services in the country and offers a wide range of products including voice and mobile broadband ...

in Somaliland * Avea in Turkey *

Asiacell Asiacell Telecom Company ( ar, آسياسيل, ku, ئاسیاسێڵ) is an Iraqi telecommunications company that offers mobile phone services and Mobile Internet mainly in Iraq. History Asiacell, the first mobile telecommunications company ...

in Iraq * Zain Group in Jordan and South Sudan Read about REFUNITE's global partnerships here: https://refunite.org/partners/

Humanitarian partners

REFUNITE has partnered with a number of humanitarian organizations including the

International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 19 ...

(IRC) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Funders

REFUNITE's main funders include the H&M Foundation, the Swedish Postkod Foundation and the

IKEA Foundation The Stichting IKEA Foundation (KvK 41202422) is a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish billionaire and founder of IKEA. The foundation receives its income from the Stichting INGKA Foundation. Initially focused on architec ...

. They have also been funded by

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over $1.5billion to n ...

, Maersk Foundation, Danfoss Foundation,

LEGO Foundation Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aro ...

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

and many others.

References

External links

* Refugee aid organizations