Refugees United, an Ericsson-backed mobile application, aims to reunite African families that have been torn apart by war or natural disaster. The program is endorsed by the Clinton Global Initiative and was unveiled at the group's annual meeting in New York.
The Refugees United project, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and mobile operator MTN, will help refugees use mobile phones to register themselves, search for loved ones and reconnect via an anonymous database.
According to UNHCR, there are more than five million people of concern in East and Northeast Africa. This accounts for 14 percent of the people that UNHCR assists around the world. To date, more than 4500 refugees have registered for the mobile application.
Former child soldier and Sudanese musician Emmanuel Jal helped launch the project at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York. Jal says: "People are displaced by weather as much as war. This tool can help anyone, anywhere find their loved ones. It can also be like therapy for refugees, because even if they don't find family, they find each other and can support each other."
Refugees United started with a pilot deployment in northern Uganda at the beginning of September and is now being extended to other camps in eastern Africa. Refugees are reconnected with loved ones using mobile text messaging (SMS) or mobile internet. The information registered may be accessed by both refugees and NGOs that care for displaced people.
The program is the brainchild of Danish brothers David Troensegaard and Christopher Mikkelsen. They spent years helping a refugee friend find his family and realized they could build a solution to make the process easier. Ericsson is making that solution scalable.
"We are really showing how important mobile technology is," says Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. "This is actually solving a very, very big challenge in the world."
In Africa less than 2 percent of people have access to computers, compared to more than 45 percent who have a mobile phone. Therefore the service is highly relevant as a mobile application.
Ericsson will provide the mobile application, technology and systems integration to enable the application in mobile networks while Refugees United will create, maintain and update the anonymous refugee database. MTN will host and offer the service on its networks, and UNHCR will help to implement the project in different refugee settlements.
