Christopher Mikkelsen and his brother David founded Refugees United in 2008, after helping a young Afghan refugee in his quest to find the family that was separated from him 5 years earlier. Discovering in the process the lack of an international IT family tracing system, linking organizations with each other, as well as empowering refugees themselves with an anonymous platform to search on their own, the brothers set out to build what was to become Refugees United. Refugees United has one mission: to help the world’s 43 million refugees, with countless families in search of missing loved ones, to reconnect through technology available to them: simple mobile phones. In partnership with Ericsson and numerous global mobile operators, the organization has developed and deployed a tracing platform currently helping close to 180.000 refugees with their family search across borders, camps and urban areas.
Using Mobile Tech to Reunite Refugees
In this short talk from Techonomy 2012, Christopher Mikkelsen talks about how he and his brother created their non-profit, Refugees United.
Conferences
Techonomy 12
Techonomy focuses on how the exponential pace of technology progress makes possible a new world. A wave of accelerating change driven by technology’s advance is washing over our lives, bringing great potential for business and social progress.
