Reconnecting family
What better way to start the new year than being reminded about the possibilities that arise when initiatives that address some of the world’s most urgent challenges make the most of technology?
Refugees United is an innovative program that supports hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled from conflict and disaster areas, and helps them search for and reconnect with missing family members or loved ones. In its 2011 Christmas newsletter, Refugees United took the opportunity to reflect on one example of a family reconnection, the story of two brothers who were reunited after five years.
In 2006, 36-year-old *Patrice and his brother *Olivier were separated when they fled the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With his wife and children, Patrice found himself in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya. One thousand two hundred kilometers away in eastern Kenya, Olivier found safety in the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Neither knew where the other was or if he was alive.
For more than five years, the men lost all contact with each other until Patrice found his brother through the Refugees United family tracing service.
The two brothers now regularly talk over the phone and, after five years of uncertainty, a new chapter in their lives has begun.
In 2011, Refugees United, with the support of Ericsson technology and expertise, helped more than 65,000 families register themselves to use its tracing database.
This underlines the fact that initiatives which use Technology for Good can make a positive impact in society and empower people around the globe.
What initiatives will you support this year and why?
Written by Elaine Weidman
Elaine Weidman Grunewald is Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson. She joined Ericsson in 1998, and she is responsible for a number of public private partnerships which explore the use of Technology for Good, i.e. the use Ericsson’s core technology to solve some of the world’s most compelling challenges and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals , including the Millennium villages, Connect to Learn, and Refugees United. She is a leading advocate of Technology for Good and represents Ericsson in a number of external fora including the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and the United Nations Global Compact.
