Worldwide, some 43 million people have been forcibly displaced according to the UN refugee agency. In 2008, Danish brothers and social entrepreneurs David and Christopher Mikkelsen formed Refugees United with one clear mission: ‘Reconnect refugees with their families, no matter where in the world’.

Refugees United, together with Ericsson, UNHCR and operator MTN joined forces to develop and deploy a mobile phone application that lets refugees register and search for loved ones. The service was piloted in Uganda with strong results. In 2010, more than 10,000 refugees were signed up, and the ambition is to register 120,000 in 2011.