Among the many compounding issues that refugees face one of the most emotionally daunting is losing contact with friends and family members. For decades the Red Cross has been the venue through which family members become reunited. But now, two Danish web entrepreneurs , brothers Christopher and David Mikkelsen, have created an alternate way of putting lost family members in touch with each other. The site is called Refunite. Der Speigel explains:
The Red Cross system, though — as efficient as it may be — requires refugees to apply for help from a third party. Requests are sent first to Red Cross headquarters in Geneva from where they are then sent to personnel working in the conflict zone in question. Should Refugees United, as the Mikkelsens call their organization, attract enough members, it could provide the displaced with a new way to search — one that they control themselves.
SNIP
“It’s really just another search engine,” Christopher Mikkelsen, 30, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “But the fact that it is specifically intended to help refugees find their families makes it a beacon. It is about helping the refugees and helping those people trying to help refugees.”
Great work, Mikkelsens.
Image from flickr: A Kosovo refugee family in Macedonia