Refunite Blog

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A critical look at REFUNITE's user experience in Kampala

I recently travelled to Kampala to improve the user experience on the family reconnection platform, www.refunite.org. Another goal was to test our SMS notification system. My overall question was: how can we improve the user experience on the REFUNITE platform?

We currently serve nearly 400,000 forcibly displaced people who speak different languages and come from different cultures and regions. Creating a digital family reconnection platform that is accessible in remote areas and from low-end mobile phones is at the heart of our activities.

Meeting the Mobile Outreach Team

The Kampala mobile outreach team consists of four members; Rodrigue Bashizi, Paul Kithima, Abana Sharifu and Claire Kipenda who are refugees themselves.

The team facilitates the registration of urban refugees living in Uganda who are searching for their missing relatives. According to Urban Refugees, there are nearly 200,000 refugees in Kampala. That number has undoubtedly increased due to the recent fighting in neighbouring South Sudan.

I was inspired by the diversity of languages spoken by our mobile outreach team, such as Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Kirundi, French, English Swahili and Luganda. Their languages skills empower us to serve refugee families, regardless of their nationality.

The team’s high morale was also very encouraging.The mobile outreach volunteers walk long distances in extreme weather (heat and rain!) to reach refugee families. They also have to deal with impatient registrants but remain patient and helpful. Their resilience and positive attitude was inspiring.

Zooming In On the User Experience

Improving our platform is an important aspect of our day-to-day activities as we want to make it easier for separated families to search, connect and communicate.

Our overall mission is to reconnect families torn apart by conflict, war and natural disasters. We believe everyone has the right to know where their family is. Anyone searching for their missing loved one can use one of our four search options:

1.     SMS - Our mobile application allows separated families to search through SMS

2.     Call Us – Our toll-free line provides access to our multilingual call center

3.     USSD – This mobile service empowers separated families to search for missing loved ones using a low-tech phone without access to the Internet

4.     REFUNITE.ORG – Enables families to search through the REFUNITE website through web or a smart phone.

Lessons and Feedback from the Field

Based on some of my conversations with urban refugees, REFUNITE’s mobile outreach volunteers and our Ugandan platform users, I arrived at the following:

REFUNITE ought to make the ‘Invite a Friend’ feature more visible

Our mobile outreach team was experiencing challenges with the messaging system, which sends SMS notification and alerts to registered users who are searching for their missing loved ones. 

A glitch in the system caused the system to send SMS messages too late or not at all. This issue raised concerns among refugee families who trust us to rapidly reconnect them with their missing family members.

As part of the family reconnection platform, we always make sure to explain to families how the process works, and how we can help them with their search. They are eager to find their loved ones why the SMS notification system needs to work. All the time.

Unlike our other mobile outreach projects in Africa and the Middle East, the Kampala team primarily offers web registration; this limits entry to people without an Internet-enabled smart phone. Building on our partnership with MTN Uganda, we are currently exploring next steps and how we can offer mobile registrations from low-end phones.

The REFUNITE platform should create space for online feedback from users

More outreach and publicity is needed on REFUNITE services in Uganda

Some refugees identified the need for literacy support

Profile photos would ease the family reconnection process; this is especially useful in instances where many share similar names

The SMS notifications needs to be a bit more customised and user-specific

All SMS notifications to users should be identifiable as coming from REFUNITE

Next Steps

We are always looking to improve our family reconnection platform to make it easier for families to reconnect with their missing loved ones. We will be making some changes and fine-tuning the platform based on the feedback we received from our users in Kampala.  The experience in Kampala has motivated me to find more ways to leverage new technology to support our teams in different locations.

Connect with Purity and share your ideas: [email protected]

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Finding Hope: Somali Cousins Reconnect After 17 Years Apart

Somali refugee Zahra Ahmed was reconnected with her cousin through the REFUNITE (www.refunite.org) platform after 17 years apart.

Before the civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991, Zahra and Abdi were your typical lively children. They went to madrasa (Islamic school), played and spent a lot of time together. Their mothers were sisters who lived in the same neighbourhood in Baidoa, a town in the south-central Bay area of Somalia, 250km from the national capital Mogadishu.

The civil war in Somalia erupted following the downfall of President Siad Barre in 1991, leading to more than two decades of conflict. According to Refugees International 2013 data, there are more than 1.1 million internally displaced Somalis and nearly one million refugees living in neighbouring countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Decades of fighting and the absence of a formal government rendered the country incapable of dealing with natural disasters; consequently, the 1992 and 2010 drought caused the deaths of more than half a million Somalis.

The fighting persisted and life amid the civil war became unbearable. In 1997, Zahra and her family escaped to a neighbouring village while her cousin Abdi and his family sought refuge in Kenya. The two families diverging choice of location for safety would lead to 17 years of separation. The cousins lost contact with each other and the ongoing civil war made it impossible to get updates on missing relatives. Neither one knew of the other’s fate. Did Abdi and his family make it to Kenya? Did Zahra and her family survive the war? They had no way of knowing. They could only hope for each other’s safety.

As the conditions in Somalia continued to deteriorate and the fighting worsened, Zahra and her family also had to flee the country. They made their way on foot and onboard transport trucks into neighbouring Kenya. They were received at the Kakuma refugee camp where Zahra learned of REFUNITE’s family reconnection service through a Mobile Outreach Volunteer named Faiza in late 2013.

REFUNITE’s mobile outreach programme in Kakuma Refugee Camp began in April 2013 in partnership with the Kenya Red Cross Society. The programme was established to help refugees living in Kakuma find their missing friends and relatives.

Kakuma refugee camp is located in Turkana County of the north-western region of Kenya. It was established in 1992 and is home to more than 180,000 refugees from Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uganda, and Rwanda.

Using a low-tech mobile phone, Faiza helped Zahra register on the REFUNITE platform, setting her off on the journey to find her missing relatives. In earnest, Zahra began the search for her cousin’s family and her missing sister. Less than a year after Zahra registered on REFUNITE, she was able to establish and confirm reconnection with her cousin Abdi who is now living in America.

In total, 14 people were reconnected through Zahra and Abdi’s contact (Zahra, her husband and 5 children; and Abdi, his parents and 4 siblings). Zahra was overjoyed to learn of her cousin’s safety and to re-establish a relationship with them. They speak on the phone regularly and Zahra hopes to receive some assistance from them in future.

Zahra is still looking for her missing sister and is hopeful that one day she will find her through the REFUNITE platform.

By Kalson Abdi

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW

*For security reasons, all names have been changed to protect the interviewees.

The above interview was initiated by Angelina N. Ndung’u of REFUNITE and took place on December 16, 2014 in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. It was conducted in the Somali language with translation support from Faiza Mohamed, an Outreach Volunteer.

CONTACT

Kalson Abdi, Campaign and Partnership Specialist, REFUNITE ([email protected])

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Lost Cousins Reconnected After 10 Years of Separation

The story below was recalled by a Congolese refugee. The details described are accurate to the best of his recollection. All names have been concealed to protect his family's identity.

After more than 10 years of separation, Congolese refugee Cedric is now reconnected with his cousin Yolanda through the REFUNITE (www.refunite.org) platform.

Cedric and his younger brother were born to Burundian parents and raised in the North Kivu district in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

During their early years, Cedric's cousin Yolanda would occasionally visit them in DRC. Sadly, Cedric’s parents passed away when they were very young; he doesn’t even remember the year it happened.

Despite the 14-year age difference between the cousins, Cedric has many fond memories of Yolanda's visits. The loss of Cedric's parents was preceded by very desperate times for the younger brothers, during which their neighbor stepped in to help raise them.

While in their neighbor’s care, the boys recounted how they were mistreated and endured a lot of hardship. As they grew older, they would do sales jobs for the neighbor, in exchange for their upkeep. It is during this time that the boys lost touch with their cousin Yolanda, who was the only other direct family member they knew.

DRC has been struggling with ongoing conflict for the past two decades. The country’s eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Katanga, and Orientale are most affected by the conflicts.

As of November 2014, an estimated 2.6 million Congolese were internally displaced, and nearly 500,000 had fled their homes into neighboring Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

In January 2014, their neighbor and primary caregiver decided to relocate to Uganda and took the brothers along with him. They continued to work for him but life became harder and more unbearable.

Cedric, who was now 18 years old, made the decision to run away with his younger brother. They managed to make their way from Uganda to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where they arrived in July 2014. They were now thrust into a life of displacement and uncertainty.

Kakuma refugee camp is located in Turkana County of the northwestern region of Kenya. It was established in 1992 and is home to more than 180,000 refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uganda, and Rwanda.

At the reception center in Kakuma, Cedric learned of the REFUNITE family reconnection platform from Bahera who works as a volunteer on the mobile outreach programme lead by REFUNITE and Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) in Kakuma Refugee Camp.

Bahera explained how the mobile search tool works and helped Cedric start his search for his missing cousin Yolanda. 

As luck would have it, his cousin Yolanda, who was now living in America, had also reported Cedric as a missing relative on REFUNITE’s platform. Based on her search criteria, Cedric received a message from Yolanda. She was able to confirm his identity, his name, tribe, country of origin, parents’ names, and more.

She responded with a message in Kirundi inquiring his whereabouts and that of his younger brother. After a few validation messages back and forth between Yolanda and Cedric, they were able to confirm their relation.

The long lost cousins had finally found each other with support from KRCS and REFUNITE. 

Now that Ceric has found his cousin Yolanda, he hopes that she may be able to connect them to other relatives. Cedric and his younger brother are are both dreaming of an education, as well as successful and peaceful lives in future. 

The cousins remain connected via telephone and hope they will someday meet in person.

KRCS provides a free phone service that allows refugees to connect with their loved ones. They get two minutes of free airtime per month.

Cedric recounts, “The best part about being reconnected with our cousin, is knowing that we are not alone, that we have other relatives around the world who care and want to find us.”

By Kalson Abdi

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW

For security reasons, all names have been changed to protect the interviewees. 

The above interview took place in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. It was conducted in French with translation by Bahera Musemi who works for REFUNITE and KRCS in the camp. Representatives from REFUNITE and KRCS participated in the interview. 

CONTACT

Kalson Abdi, Campaign and Partnership Specialist for REFUNITE ([email protected])

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New Accountant Joins The REFUNITE Family

November 18, 2014 – We are pleased to welcome Helle Kiel Hauglund to REFUNITE’s office in Copenhagen.

Prior to joining REFUNITE, Helle worked for Fredericia Municipality in Denmark and as an accountant for Deloitte in Copenhagen, Denmark. Helle has also worked for a school, at a restaurant and most recently for Berlitz Language Services, where she was in charge of payrolls and accounts for schools in Norway, Finland and Denmark.

As an accountant for REFUNITE (www.refunite.org), she will be working on various tasks, and collaborating with international teams.

“The more I read about REFUNITE, the more I knew that this was the job I wanted! Working for a humanitarian organization has been a dream of mine for years. I finally made it."

Helle, 33, has completed vocational training at Fredericia Municipality with focus on economy. 

During her spare time, she loves spending time with her two daughters, reading, listening to music, watching movies and cooking.

Connect with Helle: [email protected]

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REFUNITE Welcomes New IT Support Coordinator

November 14, 2014 - We are pleased to welcome Purity Kahoru, the new IT Support Coordinator for REFUNITE’s office in Nairobi

Purity joins the REFUNITE family after having worked as a Consultant for eBonyx Kenya Limited.

Her previous job entailed software implementation, testing, systems and support. She has also worked as an intern for Ericsson Kenya Limited, Liquid Telecomms and Afrisec Telecomms.

As an IT Support Coordinator for REFUNITE (www.refunite.org),  Purity will be a liaison between the Tech and Operations teams, supporting agents in the field and those at the call center.

Connect with Purity: [email protected]

She will also answer technical inquiries, investigate potential network or system issues and resolve them. "Using my IT skills to advance humanity is my delight. Using the same skills to reconnect families is my calling!"

Purity has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya.

When not at work, she loves to play scrabble, travel to different places and explore various cultures as well as wildlife.

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Getting Goma Right: Setting up REFUNITE for success in the DRC

November 13, 2014 - In this blog-post, Nishant Shah, REFUNITE's Africa Director, reflects on his recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

I recently embarked on a trip to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to evaluate whether a rapid expansion of REFUNITE’s family reconnection work is warranted – and if so, how to proceed. At the back of my mind was a book I read a few years ago; "King Leopold’s Ghost" by Adam Hochschild. 

The book described King Leopold of Belgium’s 19th century conversion of the DRC from a beautiful, lush, and resource-rich country into a personal fiefdom characterized by ubiquitous violence and exploitation.

During the course of this trip it became abundantly clear that the Ghost of Leopold still lingers. It has coalesced into a fog that has condensed through the decades into ethnic and land-based conflict, rebel groups, violence, corruption, and a myriad other ills befalling the massive heart of Africa. As a result, there are now hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees.

Yet, “Heart of Darkness” - as the Polish author Joseph Conrad famously labelled the DRC in his book - it most definitely is not. Instead, there is a resilient population with a sense of service to their communities, and countless folks looking for family they have lost in the course of harrowing journeys.

Identifying the pathway to scale

My goal was to begin to understand the extent to which there is a need for REFUNITE’s family reconnection services in North Kivu. This also requires a better feel for the area’s geography, institutions, culture, languages, and economic landscape.

REFUNITE (www.refunite.org) has already worked in various theaters of operation in Africa – including, for example, the refugee camps Kakuma and Dadaab in Kenya, where we have large-scale mobile outreach programs in partnership with the Kenya Red Cross Society.

Nonetheless, any route to scale is context-specific. Experience has taught us that while it is necessary to take into account lessons learned from previous mobile outreach projects, each implementation should be taken as inherently unique. For example, if we were to launch an SMS campaign in Goma, we would need to evaluate it with its own merits or demerits and if REFUNITE is the proverbial hammer, not to see every problem as a nail. 

The strategic importance of Eastern DRC to REFUNITE

“Getting Goma right” is very important to REFUNITE, as our platform already has more than 22,000 Congolese users registered and looking for lost family members.

According to UNHCR, the United Nations's refugee agency, there are almost three million IDPs in the DRC and 450,000 refugees living in neighboring countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Therein lies a huge potential for the REFUNITE platform to assist those who are searching for loved ones.

What we now need to do more comprehensively is target the areas where displaced persons are both coming from and moving to, maximizing the number of potential reconnections.

The assessment project in Goma will help REFUNITE come up with tailored mobile outreach programme, which aims to reconnect families living in the major IDP camps.

Onwards to DRC

With all this in mind, I began the trip with a stop-over in Kigali – the calm, green capital of Rwanda - where the 1994 genocide seems an eon apart. I took the opportunity to visit the Genocide Memorial Centre, which serves as a constant reminder of a scarring chapter in the country’s history.

The museum gave me a sense of the horror that took over Rwanda in 1994. One photograph showed a large group of children huddled around a bulletin board seemingly hopeful that they will find a picture of their family and reconnect with them. This was a resounding moment for me, as it reiterated the importance of REFUNITE’s work and the need to continue making the process of finding family easier, faster, and ubiquitous.

During the road trip from Kigali to the Gisenyi border-crossing prior to entering Goma, I learned that many IDP camps actually started out as refugee camps for Rwandans fleeing in 1994. A large percentage of today’s refugees in eastern DRC are still Rwandans, followed by Ugandans and a smaller number of Burundians.

Thinking about the sheer complexity of the struggles here is a taxing endeavor: refugee crises that became IDP crises and then back again, with tents that once alternatively housed Tutsis, Hutus, and many other groups as conflicts spawned, metamorphosed, and twisted into different beasts entirely. It was a sobering reflection and the backdrop for the days to come.

The generous facilitator

Any undertaking like this needs a facilitator and in this case we were fortunate to have Vodacom DRC, a mobile network operator. Since 2013, Vodacom DRC and Ericsson have provided REFUNITE with a free help line for families in DRC and SMS outreach to their customer base.

We have run numerous campaigns in the country to register folks looking for missing loved ones onto our platform, both via SMS and radio. Vodacom DRC also runs a project called “Red Alert”, which seeks to address the IDP crisis by spreading the word about REFUNITE, providing free calls to camp residents, as well as spearheading various initiatives in education and provision of materials for temporary shelter.

  I was lucky to have the guidance of Bonheur Kasali who leads the Red Alert campaign in Goma. He is a passionate, tactful, and well-connected advocate for Congolese IDPs - making him and his team the perfect people to help REFUNITE better understand the situation on the ground.

Setting the stage

During one evening in Goma, I sat with Bonheur and our wonderful translator Gloria, who is also a PhD student doing her thesis on IDP self-sufficiency and resilience. Over the course of a few hours, the two of them patiently addressed my questions, dispelling many assumptions I had about the region.

They further explained the history of the IDP crisis and its potential impact on the project; how camps are currently managed; the political aspects to take into account; and other essential contexts.

Having gained some insight into the situation, I was ready to visit the camps to interview families, community leaders, and relevant humanitarian officials.

The camps

Over the next few days, I visited four camps, including the three largest ones: Mugunga I, Mugunga III, and Bolengo. The camp leaders (elected from the IDPs) were forthright and described in detail what it would take for REFUNITE’s project to succeed in reconnecting their community members with lost family.

One particular area of concern was how families characterized by low technological understanding and a high degree of illiteracy can make effective use of a mobile technology-based initiative. Fortunately, this is something we have extensive experience in and can address.

I was also fortunate enough to meet with community organizations looking to increase self-sufficiency in the camps. One example was a woman’s group organized by ActionAid that makes soap and products from palm oil.

This group faces a stigma that women who have been raped come across when trying to sell goods; has difficulty locating buyers despite demand and high quality products; and has issues being paid on time so that there is ready capital to restock inventory when necessary.

While speaking with some of these groups was not directly related to my core purpose at the camps, they provided tremendously useful inputs for a prototyping project that REFUNITE is currently running. This project looks at what our information platform can do for displaced persons beyond family tracing.

Overall, I was convinced both of the need around family reconnection in the Goma area and of REFUNITE’s ability to scale in the region. We are now in the midst of converting the trip’s inputs into a viable and efficient approach to tracing operations with our partners in DRC.

To the future

I’d be remiss if I ended without mentioning North Kivu’s spectacular and verdant landscape - alive with beautiful lakes, rolling hills, old stone walls, an active volcano, and fascinating wildlife.

Of course, like everyone, my hope is that one day peace comes to Eastern DRC. The latent economic, cultural, and tourism potential of the region can then be manifest, benefiting families that sorely deserve it and opening up this stunningly beautiful region for all travellers to experience.

Until that happens, REFUNITE will play its part in helping the Eastern Congolese reconnect with those that give their journeys true meaning.

Connect with Nishant and share your ideas: [email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communications and Strategy. [email protected]

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REFUNITE’s Newest Member Has a Soft Spot for Software Solutions

November 12, 2014 - We are pleased to welcome Angelina N. Ndung’u, the new Research & Prototyping Associate for REFUNITE’s office in Nairobi.

Prior to joining REFUNITE, Angelina worked in various capacities including Solutions Consulting at Vortex Solutions and Project Manager at Dotsavvy, both tech firms in Kenya.

Her role at Dotsavvy entailed coordinating project teams and stakeholders to develop user-centric web systems.

As a Research and Prototyping Associate at REFUNITE (www.refunite.org), Angelina will be seeking to understand the platform users better and develop ideas to come up with more comprehensive prototypes.

Connect with Angelina: [email protected]

She has a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering from Kenyatta University in Kenya and describes herself as a foodie who enjoys cooking, hiking and experiencing new cultures.

“I am delighted to join REFUNITE and be part of a noble team that reconnects refugees with their lost loved ones."

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Healthcare: A Dire Need for Technology-Based Solutions in Refugee Camps

November 6, 2014 - Research and prototyping is deeply embedded in REFUNITE’s work. Kennedy Steven, REFUNITE’s prototyping assistant, reflects on his recent visit to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. 

Two weeks ago, I travelled to Kakuma Refugee Camp to conduct research around health and documentation. Before the trip, I had developed a research question: might there be smarter ways for refugees to store their most important documents? I am thinking about documents that matter: from birth certificates to health records and passports.

Kakuma is home to 125,000 refugees. They come from different countries, such as South Sudan, Somalia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. During their escape from conflict and violence, refugees often bring their most important documents with them, such as their birth certificate or baptism card.

Upon arrival in Kakuma Refugee Camp, refugees get new, important documents, such as an identification document (similar to a national ID issued by the Government.) This document is only given to refugees if their case has been approved. They are also given a food ration card (picture below), which can be used twice a month. 

During my stay in Kakuma, I interviewed many refugees in the camp. And through focus groups and roleplaying, I sought to identify challenges and opportunities for better documentation.

I also visited a hospital to get a better understanding of the types of documents that are given to refugees. There are seven clinics and one main hospital in Kakuma. While all refugees have access to the hospital, the hospital only deals with severe cases that clinics are unable to handle. 

When a refugee falls sick and is taken to the clinic, the doctor fills out the patient's details, such as disease symptoms, medicine prescriptions and consultation date in an exercise book.

Patients and nurses helped me understand the internal processes. I even got to ‘play’ a patient to a get first-hand experience. Women with children as well as older members of the refugee community participated in the focus group discussions.

Through this process, I learned that refugees are well informed about the papers they need, and where to get them. However, when it comes to saving and storing their most important documents, it gets more challenging.

Kakuma was recently hit by floods, and many homes were destroyed. When natural disaster or conflict strikes, refugees may easily lose or damage their documents. And to make things worse, it takes a long time to replace the lost papers.

In the comings weeks, I will be looking into different technologies that may help refugees store their documents. While Internet connectivity in Kakuma Refugee Camp is spotty, most households own a low-cost mobile phone or a SIM-card.

There are also computer stations in the camp. My assumption is that refugees can benefit from having their documents stored electronically. A couple of examples: 

If important papers are scanned and uploaded onto a computer database, refugees will no longer have to carry around damaged papers or risk losing them. 

When refugees get sick, they have to schedule an appointment with a doctor. Instead of using an old-fashioned book to schedule the appointment, it can be done automatically through new technology. This would also make it easier for medical personnel to know how many cases they have to handle in one day.

Refugees in camps are exposed to poisonous creatures, such as snakes, scorpions and spiders. In the unfortunate case that they get bitten, they have to go through a very long process to get medical assistance. If there were IT-based tutorials, they would be educated on how to offer basic first aid.

Amidst my busy schedule, I still managed to meet with REFUNITE’s Mobile Outreach Volunteers. I provided them with solar powered mobile chargers that I had carried from Nairobi. The chargers support REFUNITE's ultimate goal, which is to reconnect separated families through mobile-technology.

I am grateful to the entire team in Kakuma that made this research trip a success.

Connect with Steven and share your ideas! [email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communications and Strategy. [email protected]

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Education Above All and REFUNITE to Launch “m-Health” in Kakuma Refugee Camp

REFUNITE and Education Above All (EAA) to form a partnership

A pilot project titled m-Health will be launched in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya   

REFUNITE’s co-founders will be in Doha for the announcement

On November 5th 2014, Education Above All (EAA) will host an event at the Qatar National Conference Centre in Doha. REFUNITE’s co-founders will attend the event alongside organizations specialized in refugee assistance.

As part of an ongoing effort to address barriers to education, EAA and REFUNITE will launch a pilot information project known as m-Health. This new initiative seeks to change the way information on health is delivered in refugee camps.

Education Above All is a global initiative spearheaded by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar. With a particular focus on areas affected by poverty and conflict, EAA champions quality education for children and youth.

During the event in Doha, EAA will launch the The Kakuma Project, which brings together a wide range of partners, including experts in construction, management, solar technology, sports, water and sanitation. m-Health will be part of The Kakuma Project and will focus on providing education through REFUNITE′s platform.

“Self-empowerment is at the heart of m-Health. While technology makes the process easier, the real impact comes from educating refugees and innovators to educate themselves. Having assisted over 30,000 refugees in Kakuma, piloting m-Health information is a natural extension of our current activities,” says David Mikkelsen, Co-Founder of REFUNITE.

REFUNITE is a non-profit tech organization whose mission is to empower forcibly displaced families to reconnect digitally. Among other things, REFUNITE is behind the award-winning family-reconnection platform refunite.org, which has more than 350,000 users.

The m-Health information project builds on REFUNITE’s in-depth expertise in technology for refugees and leverages mobile technology to educate refugees on issues such as Malaria, Ebola, HIV and Cholera.

Leonardo Pinheiro, Director of Strategy, Policy and Research for EAA, says: “The Kakuma Project represents an innovative approach to providing education in a conflict-affected community. Not a relief effort, The Kakuma Project focuses on improving camp infrastructure and providing educational opportunities to residents of all ages in order to give them the confidence, skills and knowledge necessary for self-reliance. Together with our partners, EAA seeks to give the residents of the Kakuma Refugee Camp the tools and agency they need to create a better future for themselves.”

The goal is for m-Health information to be accessible through various devices – even without access to the Internet. All that refugees need is a low-end phone. Data will be collected through interactive games and quizzes.

Upon successful implementation in Kakuma, the m-Health pilot project will be scaled rapidly in other camps in Africa and the Middle East.

MEDIA CONTACT

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communications and Strategy for REFUNITE ([email protected])

Rachel Ombaka, Online Editor for REFUNITE ([email protected])

Photo Credit: HHOPL

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What I Learned While Rapid Prototyping in a Refugee Camp

November 5, 2014 — Zac Halbert is working as a Product Lead for a tech organization in San Francisco. He is also the American winner of the Global Hack for Good organized by Ericsson and REFUNITE. In this blog-post, he shares his experience creating a prototype for a ‘Messaging Wizard’ in Kakuma Refugee Camp

I recently returned from an excursion to Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. Kakuma is home to about 125,000 refugees from all over Sub-Saharan Africa.

The goal of the trip was to build on the winning idea that was developed during the Hack for Good. During the hackathon, I created a mockup for a ‘Messaging Wizard’ together with my team in San Francisco.

The REFUNITE platform makes use of the USSD protocol, a system that most phones in Africa can access. It is used for mobile banking and is prevalent even when phones are not internet- or SMS-enabled. For now, it is the best technological option for use within a refugee camp.

One current challenge with REFUNITE’s USSD is that there is a 3 minute session timeout, making it difficult for some users to type a message to friends or relatives before getting kicked out of the system. The 'Messaging Wizard' only requires users to select from up to 4 options, or type single words. The bulk of the message is templated, allowing for greater message fidelity without running into the session timeout issue.

In Kakuma, my goal was to prototype the ‘Messaging Wizard’ to help families, who have been torn apart by war and famine, communicate with each other more effectively.

 The challenge

REFUNITE is a technology-based nonprofit organization trying to tackle the challenge of reconnecting over 50 million forcibly displaced people.

To put it lightly, the challenges that the REFUNITE team face are complex. While it may seem that we were just a small part of the bigger picture, my team and I decided to tackle the problem of communication between refugees.

More than 360,000 people have signed up on the REFUNITE platform (www.refunite.org), making it the biggest platform for separated refugees and internally displaced people globally.

Now for the ‘Messaging Wizard’!   

Once a person finds a potential loved one, they need to make sure the person is who they say they are. Many refugees have endured atrocities at the hands of authority figures and other adversaries.

As a result, they have deep-running fears and suspicions. They are reluctant to share personal information on the internet, lest they face a similar or even worse experience. Gun shy doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Currently, with the platform, a potential “match” has the option of writing a message to someone they think could be a family member. However, there are constraints that make this more challenging than it might initially seem.

Imagine the following context:

You are a refugee using the platform, either on your own or with the assistance of one of REFUNITE’s outreach volunteers. You see the name of a cousin that you lost contact with 10 years ago — someone you are not even sure is still alive.

You are in the middle of a camp, living in horrendous conditions with spotty network connectivity. This might be the first time you have used any kind of technology and you are only partially literate.

On top of that, you have two minutes or less to write a message before the USSD protocol times out, and you have to write a message on a very basic phone that has a 10-key input. (For example: typing the word "hello" requires typing 4,4,3,3,5,5,5,5,5,5,6,6,6) What would you say in this situation?

The solution

With these constraints in mind, we attempted to craft a 'Messaging Wizard' that would allow someone to write a short but elaborate message; detailed enough to help the recipient trust the sender’s portrayed identity.

The 'Messaging Wizard' also needed to address the technical constraints of the USSD platform, and ultimately reconnect more families quicker. During the initial hackathon, we created a prototype to effectively communicate our idea. (Click here to view the github repo) 

In Kakuma, we decided to go as low-fi as possible and simulate USSD with paper prototyping (which is a fancy word for drawing stuff on paper).

We interviewed refugees who had successfully reconnected with lost family members to learn the following:

1. How they talk to a potential match,

2. What their concerns and expectations were before and after using the platform, and

3. To learn what else we had not thought about.

What I learned

The first thing I learned was that I had no inkling as to how complex the design needed to be. Here are the sample user stories that I wrote before going into the field:

As a user who needs to write a message to a potential match, I need to easily perform some action every 2 minutes to keep the USSD connection alive so that I can communicate with the recipient.

As a recipient of a message on the REFUNITE platform, I need to have enough information to be sure that I can trust the person writing me.

As a user of the REFUNITE platform, I need to send enough information to a recipient so that they’ll know who I am, but not so much that I compromise security or safety.

After going into the field, I had to add more user stories that are certainly the strangest, most heart-breaking user stories I have ever written:

As a mother, who was told that her child died 20 years ago when the war broke out, I want to know that this person writing me claiming to be my child is in fact related to me, so that we can be reunited.

As an orphan responsible for the safety of my younger siblings, I need concrete information to confirm that the person contacting me is actually a relative wanting to help. I really want to improve quality of life, reunite with relatives, and avoid further hardships at the hands of those who would potentially exploit us.

After crying a little bit on the inside, I went to work, with guidance from REFUNITE’s tech team in Nairobi, attempting to address these challenges.

Modifying the solution

Based on what I learned, I modified the solution to simplify initial contact between two refugees. The use cases were so complex that attempting to structure all communication between parties was a fool’s mission.

I tried to make initial contact easier, but at the same time let both parties choose how they communicate once their identities are confirmed and trust is established.

With a progressive Q&A messaging system, we are able to maintain the USSD connection, require minimal reading or writing skills, and still end up with an elaborate and detailed message that a person can send to a potential match.

Questions such as:

“What is your father’s name?”

“What year were you born?”

“Where are you from?”

…were able to be answered with short words and phrases.

This kept the connection alive, and allowed technology to fill in the blanks. This series of short answers might result in a message such as this:

“Hello, my name is Mohammed Sayid, and my father is Maror. I’m originally from South Sudan, and I’m looking for my brother Hadi. I was born in 1976, and was separated from Hadi in 1991. I’m in Kenya now — do you have any information on the whereabouts of Hadi? Thank you.”

Conclusion

The word “solution” may perhaps be too strong a word, but this modification of the platform could help people communicate with each other more effectively than the current free–form messaging system.

While technology can’t solve everything, it can still simplify processes that organizations like REFUNITE need to alleviate the suffering witnessed in refugee camps like Kakuma.

Ultimately, I feel honored to have been part of a project with such noble goals. For people who have lost everything, helping them find the most important thing in the world - family - is an immensely rewarding and worthwhile experience.

The global Hack for Good was powered by Ericsson and REFUNITE.

MEDIA CONTACT

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communications for REFUNITE ([email protected])

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REFUNITE Welcomes a New Campaign and Partnership Specialist

November 4, 2014 – We are pleased to welcome Kalson Abdi to REFUNITE's office in Nairobi 

Kalson brings more than ten years of experience to REFUNITE, both from the private and the philanthropic sector. In her capacity as REFUNITE's new Campaign and Partnership Specialist, she will be working on stakeholder engagement and strategic communications.

Kalson has a passion for communications and connecting people with ideas. She's held various positions in Canada before deciding to relocate to Kenya, where she grew up.

In Canada, Kalson worked as a Grants and Information Manager for Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, as a Scholarship Programme Administrator for Maytree Foundation, as an Executive Assistant for a motorcar startup and as a CSR Intern for the Royal Bank of Canada.

Prior to joining REFUNITE (www.refunite.org), Kalson worked as a Communication Officer for Africa Media Initiative in Nairobi, which is funded by Omidyar Network.

She has a BA in Public Administration and Governance from Ryerson University in Canada. She loves cooking, working out, exploring Kenya, reading and blogging. Her most recent online 'pet project' is called "Know Your Hustle."

Kalson also speaks Somali and Swahili. 

“Life is about participating, getting dirty and figuring things out. Working on campaigns in support of refugees is a privilege. I look forward to expanding my horizon and collaborating with all teams. A Sepedi proverb says that lions that don’t work together, can be defeated by a limping buffalo.” 

Connect with Kalson: [email protected]

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Introducing RefRoulette: Our Weekly Brainstorm Sessions

November 3, 2014 – Welcome to RefRoulette, a session where advanced technology for displaced persons takes centre stage.

Creative folks from REFUNITE have come up with an interactive way of getting members from different teams to collaborate and gain more insight into technology trends to help refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).

Introducing RefRoulette, a weekly brainstorm for REFUNITE team members from different countries. How can we leverage new technology in support of refugee families and IDPs? In the coming weeks, this question will be explored through various perspectives.

How does RefRoulette work? Every Monday, the whole organization receives an email announcing the RefRoulette team of the week. They are given a topic to research, discuss and create a presentation about, which is then shared with fellow colleagues by the end of the week.

Topics so far have ranged from wearable technology and Augmented Reality (AR) to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Team members join forces to explore how these trends may impact refugees and IDPs living in refugee camps.

With more than 50 million forcibly displaced people in the world, and ignited by a wide range of emerging technologies, it is crucial to stay abreast of trends affecting refugees.  

One group explored AR and created the presentation “A step into the future of refugee camps.” Another group did research on trends, such as “the Internet of Things” and created a mockup of a so-called RefuBand.

The group tasked with research on AR shared ideas around a camera phone that overlays information on geographical location, potential relatives and buildings in a camp. 

They also educated their colleagues on how refugees can use AR to construct a house, or how they can use it for education on human anatomy and language translation.

The RefuBand presentation focused on how to ease the registration process for new refugees in camps. Oftentimes, refugees will spend hours and days trying to register with local organizations.

The group asked: What if we created a wrist band with all necessary information? After all, not all refugees own a phone. After data is collected, it is uploaded onto RefuBand and backed up by a so-called RefuCloud for data storage.

The sessions aim to spur global conversations around the future of technology and humanitarian innovation. It also gives team members a chance to kick back, collaborate while at work and learn about subject areas outside their daily experience, irrespective of job titles or professional backgrounds. 

REFUNITE will also use these sessions to enhance the use of advanced technology in interventions and programs for IDPs in camps.

This week, a new group will be looking into Cryptocurrency for IDPs. 

By Ida Jeng and Rachel Ombaka

CONTACTS

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communication and Strategy for REFUNITE ([email protected])

Rachel Ombaka, Online Editor for REFUNITE ([email protected])

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REFUNITE Welcomes a New Team Member

October 29, 2014 — "Joining Refunite is like a breath of fresh air. A team that makes a positive impact in the world is worth being part of," she says.

Rachel has joined Refunite as an Online Editor. She brings 7 years of experience from the Nation Media Group in Nairobi, Kenya.

During her stint at Nation, which is the largest independent media house in East and Central Africa, Rachel′s work involved creating and publishing stories, videos and pictures.

She was also tasked with identifying opportunities for online coverage, sharing published content on social media and analyzing performance of the company′s website to enhance readership.

Connect with Rachel: [email protected]

Rachel has a Bachelor′s degree in Information Systems and Technology from the United States International University. She also loves to bake and says that in another life, she would probably be Betty Crocker’s apprentice.

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Mapping the Future for REFUNITE

October 29, 2014 – In September, REFUNITE’s team members embarked on a trip to Nanyuki, Kenya, to innovate, collaborate...and have some fun!  

A five-hour drive from Nairobi on a Friday morning kicked off our 3-day team building trip.

Staying true to our core, it did not take more than 30 minutes into the bus drive before some of our tech-team members pulled out their laptops and started coding away...always seeking to improve our platform to reconnect separated refugee families.

Initially, we thought the trip would take two hours but 4 hours later, we were still on the road (Google maps we can improve your platform too!).

At around 2pm, we finally arrived to a breath-taking scenery of a quiet and historical town, one of the reasons why we chose Nanyuki as our off-site location. Here was a haven where we could work without interruptions of our daily routines.

On day 2, after returning from an early morning safari, it was time for some REFUNITE-style prototyping challenges! The session was a great success, with much creativity unleashed.  

Teams were given four hours to ideate, prototype, and present their innovative solutions to a given challenge. Using our current platform as a basis, many creative ideas on how to use mobile technology to add features to our product were generated.

The 3 days offered great insight into what can happen, when you bring together a young, dynamic team of developers, graphic designers, analysts, communicators, and project managers.

We are currently working on how to implement these ideas for our future product streams. We believe that we’ll see many more great ideas coming from our creative teams as we move ahead!

By Claudia Simler, Project Director at REFUNITE ([email protected])

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Smart, Ericsson and REFUNITE to reconnect displaced Filipino Families through SMS

Smart Communications, Ericsson, and REFUNITE will launch an SMS disaster service for Filipino families.

More than 4 million people have been displaced by the catastrophic Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines last year.

The innovative SMS service allows Filipino families to take the search for missing relatives into their own hands, through a simple text message.

Today, Ericsson Smart, and REFUNITE announced the launch of a new family tracing and reconnection service in the Philippines. The new SMS service, the first of its kind in Asia, will soon deliver hope initially to Filipino families separated by Typhoon Haiyan. The typhoon hit the Philippines in November 2013, causing large-scale damage and displacement. Nearly a year after Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons on record in recent years, the UNHCR estimates there are still around 4 million displaced persons in the Visayas region. 

REFUNITE (www.refunite.org) is a mobile and web platform that empowers families to search for missing relatives by sending an SMS through any mobile and web-enabled device. More than 350,000 people have already registered on the global platform. 

With support from Ericsson and Smart, the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider, the mobile service will soon be accessible to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. By the end of 2014, families will be able to search, reconnect, and communicate with missing loved ones in the aftermath of Haiyan. This will also benefit Filipino victims of emergencies and disasters in the future.

Smart will create awareness of the REFUNITE family reconnection platform through SMS campaigns and cell broadcasts. The joint response will be piloted in Tacloban City, which was among those hardest-hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and then scaled to other regions.

Orlando B. Vea, Chief Wireless Advisor of Smart, says: “This is an innovative mobile service that is very relevant to the challenges that we face in the Philippines. Every year, natural and man-made disasters displace people and separate family members. An SMS-based service that enables people to search for their missing loved ones will be very useful. That is why we are happy to work with our partners to bring this service to the Philippines."

Sam Saba, Ericsson Head for the Southeast Asia and Oceania region, says: “We continue to seek new ways to leverage technology for good.  This new partnership will aid the displaced Filipino population, and bring them closer to their goal of reconnecting with lost loved ones.”

Christopher Mikkelsen, co-founder of REFUNITE, says: “Everyone has the right to know where their family is. The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons each year. Our goal is to leverage new technology to bring separated families back in touch.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

Refugees United (REFUNITE) is a technology-based nonprofit organization that connects families separated by war, conflict and natural disaster. REFUNITE serves the world’s 52 million forcibly displaced people. The platform can be accessed through mobile and web, and is supported by a coalition of mobile operators in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. www.refunite.org.

MEDIA CONTACT

Ida Jeng, Director of Global Communication: Email: [email protected]. Mobile: [phone].   

Photo credits: Pio Arce/Genesis Photos - World Vision

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Five Failures that Helped Us Bring a Quarter Of A Million Refugees Onto Refunite.org

For the first time since World War II, there are more than 50 million forcibly displaced people in the world. From Syria to South Sudan, a refugee crisis is unfolding in front of our eyes. During their escape from war and conflict, families often become separated. Through the years, we’ve seen firsthand what separation does to a family. There was the Somali mother, living in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya, who had to say goodbye to her children, while fleeing in the middle of the night. There were the Congolese sisters who lost track of their sister during a massacre in the local village.

When families become separated, we work hard to put them back in touch in close coordination with refugees and partners from the private and the public sector. The platform is free and accessible through mobile and web. In selected countries, displaced people can access the platform without an Internet connection. REFUNITE was founded in 2008, after a personal encounter with an Afghan refugee named Mansour. He inspired us to embark on the journey we are on today.

Everyone has the right to know where their family is. Since 2008, we have assisted thousands of forcibly displaced families, with hundreds of family reconnections as a result.

Ericsson, nonprofit organizations and a global coalition of mobile network operators in Africa and the Middle East have joined the cause. They have provided access to camps, free SMS, toll free lines, and accessibility to the platform, with the overall goal of making it easier for separated families to search, connect and communicate. 

We continue to believe that, by collaborating and sharing failures and lessons learned, we can become even better at serving families in need. It is our hope that this mindset will become even more widespread globally – especially within the humanitarian sector. 

In the sprit of knowledge sharing, we have identified five failures, which have led to radial improvements and innovations. 

1: No Centralized Database for Missing Persons Globally

You could argue that the birth of REFUNITE came from a failure on the part of the international community. In 2008, we tried to help Mansour find his brother, after the war in Afghanistan had torn them apart. During this process, we realized that there was a lack of data-sharing infrastructure amongst refugee agencies. Before REFUNITE, the options for people who were searching for loved ones were very limited, often leaving them feeling powerless. After filling out pages of documents, refugees’ information was passed from one country to another, often taking months, if not years. A lack of technology left the process with no centralized, cross-organizational system of sharing information. This failure inspired us to found REFUNITE.

2: Failing to Involve the User

When we first formed REFUNITE, it was meant as an agency-only platform to help collect, curate, and distribute data on separated families. Our goal was to help aid agencies collect data in a systematic and collaborative way. Place last seen. Name. Tribe. Village. We discovered fairly quickly that, it was not just about digitizing the way aid agencies handle and distribute data but also about including the most important actors in the equation: refugees themselves. By enabling refugees to register themselves through simple $5 phones, we scaled our operations and went from 10,000 registrations to 350,000. Our platform is built, shaped and modified in close coordination with refugees in Africa and the Middle East. This user focus drives all our activities. If it doesn’t work for them, it doesn’t work for us. 

3: Failing to Involve the Private Sector

In this process, we discovered another “failure” that led us to our current position: the private sector was largely an untapped resource; often a place for smart people wanting to innovate for social good. In the beginning, only a handful of folks from the humanitarian sector would listen to our experiences from camps and our thoughts on innovation.

We had to shift our focus to forming relationships with tech companies who could help us build REFUNITE into what it is today: a safe and global missing persons network. Together, REFUNITE and Ericsson have brought Zain, Vodacom DRC, Safaricom, Telesom, Asiacell Iraq, AVEA Turkey and a number of other mobile network operators on board, thereby allowing us to reach families in camps and refugee prone areas on a scale and in a manner in which we could not have done by ourselves.

  4: Neglecting Direct Communication with Refugees

This opportunity stemmed from another failure we had to correct: we should have focused even more on providing precise and up-to-date information to refugees. Easing their burden by letting them register in a few easy steps, through any device. Trying out a number of different avenues, from radio to community forums, we found that the most effective way to reach, inform, and register refugees was through SMS & USSD. USSD is a technology, which is very popular in Africa; often used for money-transfers.

This lightweight touch-point not only gave us a highly direct way of informing those in need of our services, but also made it much easier for families to register on their own terms, and at their own pace. Today, we are able to communicate directly with millions of families through SMS, thereby bringing hope amidst despair.   

A failure is often a radical innovation in disguise. You don’t go from thinking about space travel to building a rocket ship in one day. You begin with small steps, mess things up, burn your fingers, learn and tinker until find you’ve succeeded.

5: Underestimating the Importance of an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Which brings us to the fifth failure: mindset. Looking back, we should have established a team of folks with an entrepreneurial mindset – both internally and externally. One of the reasons we’ve been able to scale so fast and bring so many families onto the platform, is due to the goodwill and collaborations with driven, entrepreneurial and dedicated staff and volunteers, spanning refugee families wanting to give back to their communities to passionate staff from organizations like Ericsson, IKEA Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and a host of others. All people who know that, to find a success, you have to test, fail, and grow.

If we hadn’t experienced resistance from the get-go, we would most likely never have fallen out into the world with our penchant for rapid prototyping, risks, and humbling mistakes. We were empowered to do this by refugees who keep us in check and by people from the world of technology, iterations, and risk-taking. Folks who know that, a brilliant idea can take many versions to find its most successful self.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Media contact: Ida Jeng, Communications Director: [email protected]

More info: www.refunite.org.  

Photo 1: Christopher and David Mikkelsen, founders of REFUNITE. Photo 2: REFUNITE, Ericsson and partners at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2010. Photo 3: A REFUNITE volunteer in the process of registering a refugee in Kampala, Uganda. Photo 4: A refugee at a computer station in Daaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. Photo 5: Zaarari Refugee Camp in Jordan. Photo 6: From REFUNITE's and Ericsson's Global Hack for Good in Nairobi, Kenya.  

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A Visit to REFUNITE's Lab in Dadaab Refugee Camp

 Check out Nishant's photos for the on-the-ground view of Dadaab.

Nishant also met with community leaders throughout Dadaab to discuss our work and what we can do to improve our family reconnection platform.

The trip provided insight into how we can shape our outreach efforts and deploy our resources to reach as many refugees as possible. Conversations with the Outreach Volunteers centered around the use of USSD technology, which allows users to register from cell phones without internet access. 

Much of the trip was organized by Fatnah, the indefatigable and incredibly committed leader of our teams in Dadaab. 

Last, and certainly not least, Nishant would like to mention that it was an opportunity to awkwardly watch The Steve Harvey Show on a big screen in the middle of the night.