Reuniting relatives using the internet

The Mikkelsen brothers Christopher (32) and David (36) can still remember the joy and sense of relief that suffused Mansour's face when he met his long-lost brother, Ali.

Twelve-year-old Mansour had, with the help of a few people, fled from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to Denmark.

The plan was that he would go first and his family would follow later. However, that was not to be and after an arduous journey over land and sea Mansour landed up in Copenhagen alone as a refugee.

He had no clue where his family was and how he could contact them.

Five years later, David, a teacherin Copenhagen, met Mansour when the young boy joined his school for young refugees.

David was truly moved when he heard Mansour's story and was keen to help the little boy reconnect with his family. To that end, he - along with his brother, Christopher, also a teacher - set to work.

After months of research and a trip to Pakistan where they enquired about the boy's kin using his surname, the Mikkelsen brothers came to know that Ali was in a place called Stavropol, in southern Russia, close to the Chechen border. They also managed to get a telephone number which one of their contacts told them would lead to Ali.

Elated, David and Christopher pursued the lead and after overcoming a lot of hurdles managed to find Ali.

The moment the brothers saw each other is still etched in their mind, say the Mikkelsen brothers. The joy on their faces was unbelievable, they say.

So overwhelmed were the Danish duo by the fact that they were able to bring together two long-lost siblings that they decided to start an anonymous online forum that would help reconnect divided families. Thus Refugees United was founded in 2005.

"From a stream of 43 million refugees, Mansour's story is nothing extraordinary, yet it is profound,'' says Christopher. "In a world where numbers trump narrative, we think that perhaps in the masses of society, people often lose sight of the factthat each story is personal and affects us all.

"In our case, we took our time - learned and understood what moved the world around Mansour. After hearing his story, it was impossible not to take action…

"The search for Mansour's family continuously opened doors that led deeper into understanding [the issue of refugees] and, in the end, disbelief - disbelief that an entire world was left outside the communicative networks that could enable them to find missing children, siblings, parents. We felt compelled to take action - from a humanitarian perspective and also because it was wonderfully exciting."

The pain of separation

One of the compelling tragediesof the times is the fact that - owingto wars, famines, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis - every year millions of people get separated from their families. According to the United Nation's Refugee Agency, the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a refugee is defined as a person who is unable to live in his or her country of nationality or is unable to returnthere due to a fear of persecution based on his race, religion, nationality, or political opinion. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are those people who haven't crossed international borders but are forced to flee their homes owing to human rights violations or civil wars. The UNHCR statistics indicate together there are 43 million worldwide who fall under these categories.

In an online interview with Friday, Christopher and David share their sentiments, challenges and future plans of easing the suffering of people who have been separated from their loved ones.

An idea is born

Helping Mansour find his siblinghad a huge impact on the brothersand they were keen to help moresuch people - particularly refugees -to reconnect and reunite withtheir families. Says David: "It was Mansour who created a spark, which in turn illuminated a problem, and in the [glare of that light] we believewe saw a possible solution to aglobal problem."

David admits that he and his brother were mentally prepared "but woefully untested when it came to dealing with refugees, international organisations and so on.

"[Setting up Refugees United] has been a blessing and at times an obstacle; a blessing because it led us to naively attack a problem from an entirely new angle, wrangling a problem from a lopsided perspective to introduce different results; an obstacle because we had little knowledge, few connections and zero credibility [so did not know where to start from]. All we knew was that [many refugees] couldn't find their families. That was the trigger. It still is."

Once the brothers had made up their mind, they gave up teaching and plunged headlong into establishing Refugees United.

Christopher elaborates on the mission statement of their organisation: "RU's objective is to help refugees relocate lost family and loved ones by offering an online, free-of-charge and anonymous search engine, which could eradicate a problem millions suffer from, via technology and a worldwide reach. We wish to help the countless refugees out of the uncertainty, of not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones. Therefore, we have created this tool for locating and communicating. It's not about physical reunification."

The duo want to make the job of searching for loved ones as safe, inexpensive and as anonymous as possible (to prevent the system being misused or abused).

The brothers knew that most refugees do not have the finances or the technology to launch a hunt for their missing kin. So they worked on setting up a free search engine (www.refunite.org). They also contacted several corporates - both private and public - as well as non-governmental organisations which they hoped would help support them in their mission. And they were successful: Ericsson, SAP, Google, FedEx, UNHCR, Red Cross/Crescent, Caritas, ECRE and Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum and the IKEA Foundation now support their innovative and proven platform.

Within three years of setting up RU, the duo, with the help of these agencies, were able to develop a professional, free, online search engine that could be used in 20 languages across the globe.

How they do it

RU uses a wealth of tools to search and reconnect a refugee's family. "We utilise the web platform, SMSs, WAP functionality (a mobile web browser for older phones)... The web experience is obviously the richest, allowing us to fully explain all details and obtain as much information as possible. However, limited access to computers and the internet complicates this process in many places, leaving us to rely on mobile phones and their ubiquity.

"As for using other [avenues] to trace people, Refugees United is purely tech-based,'' says David.

David elaborates on how RU helps people access information. Starting a search is pretty simple, he says. "You either choose to register on the website or to search. Once you register you will be given a username and password. Once this is done, you'll be guided through the system, which has various fields such as nationality, age, gender, and, most importantly, one called "personal information" where you need tofeed in information about yourself and/or the person you are seeking, says David.

"In the personal information field, you can note anything - from your nickname to a childhood memory, a scar, a birthmark... anything that distinguishes you and that can be helpful to make you recognisable to family and friends. You can also include personal info about the person you are looking for in this field.

"Once these fields are completed, you hit the search button and "the search engine crawls through the registered profiles searching for words that match your search words. It will include profiles resembling your search.''

The result will present users with a list of possible matches. They can click on each profile to see more information about the person.

If they believe they have found the person they are looking for, they can send him/her a message through the embedded, closed-circuit message system.

In this way, users never have to use their personal e-mail addresses, phone numbers or physical addresses. Nothing is traceable.

David explains, "When revisiting the site, you simply log in with a password and you can then check if you have messages, make new searches or change your profile.

"In essence, you can leave out all information you don't feel comfortable sharing. You can fill in anything you believe is important in order to help you reconnect with your missing kin."

Phenomenal response

The response to RU has been phenomenal. In 2008, about 700 people registered online; by 2010 the number has risen to 120,000. And the Mikkelsen brothers are hopeful that by 2012 nearly 300,000 people will have registered.

"[The day-to-day working] is a true test for us. Ideas are free, hard work isn't," says Christopher. "We have built Refugees United from the ground up, moving from the kitchen table to the boardroom table in a relatively short period of time. None of it would have been possible without the array of wonderful people who from the very beginning took us in, invested time and faith in us, spurred us on and helped us reach towards our goals. What began as two people and an idea, now has more than 60 brilliant people worldwide (including volunteers) in five countries [Kenya, Uganda, Brazil, Egypt and Denmark] helping thousands of refugees to register and search for their families every month."

He says coordination and precision as well as a passion for success and a clear mission will help create a structured, high-impact organisation. "We have had to learn a lot, and again wouldn't have made it without our wonderful co-workers and supporters. For example, Delta Partners, a consultancy in Dubai, has been instrumental in working with us to shape strategy and [in the] pursuit of goals," says David.

A typical day in the life of theRU consists of the brothers speaking to their teams based in Kenya, Uganda, Brazil and Egypt, working on communications and strategy, fund-raising and, most importantly, contacting other organisations which work with refugees and in the field offamily tracing.

"Our tech department works on the database and website, engages with the tech team at Ericsson on further developments of the mobile platforms and engages with smart individuals across the planet who come forth to help us," adds David.

Looking for the silver lining each day

Each day is new and exciting and full of anticipation for the brothers and their team as it brings the hope of yet another person finding his or her loved one. "You can't describe the feeling it awakens in you when a family is finally reconnected.

"The first moment of helping Mansour and reuniting him with his brother in Moscow after years of separation and months of desperate search was the fuel that kept us going until two years later when the first family found each other through refunite.org.

"It is incredible to bear witness to, or for example to hear from a father who has been searching for a daughter and wife for two years, finally being able to reconnect with them through RU. It's an incredible experience," enthuses David. RU recently launched a pilot project on mobile phones through SMS and other mobile solutions in partnershipwith Ericsson, the UNHCR and the Africa-based Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN).

"East Africa is our entry point towards an expansion that will see us branch out across other parts of Africa and towards the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As our mobile tools grow and continuously develop, it is our hope and belief that they will find use in natural disaster situations worldwide," says Christopher about their ever-burgeoning technology plans.

The brothers feel the onus of reuniting separated family members lies on the world at large today. Says David, "We want people to think... really think about what it means to be a refugee. To have had your past disappear and your future [uncertain]… This burden should not be borne by one person, but must become the responsibility of us all if we are to solve this issue."

RU says all of us can help in our own way by contributing our might to this cause. "If you would like to help us bridge information towards refugees through community forums, advocacy initiatives or the likes, please get in touch. If you know foundations interested in supporting innovative work with the ability to help thousands of people, please get in touch. If you would like to donate to our mission - rest assured no amount is too small and it all goes towards good work - please get in touch. If you understand databases, search and mobile technologies and would like to help out, please get in contact.

"Refugees United is a story of ideas, of organisations and corporations coalescing to seek a shared solution to solve an age-old problem. We cannot do this without your help!''

"Even though Refugees United cannot provide physical reunification, it is our hope to provide certainty for those who need it most - families that have been separated.

"No one should endure the uncertainty and solitude so many refugees endure today. No parent should suffer the torture of not knowing the whereabouts or fate of their children," says Christopher.

For more information log on to www.refunite.org