Happy New Year to the RefugePoint Community! We made great strides in 2018 towards finding lasting solutions for refugees, and we could not have done it without your support. This is what you helped us to achieve in 2018:

• In January, RefugePoint and partner agencies created and began testing a new tool, The Self-Reliance Index, for measuring the quality of life and self-reliance of refugee households in Jordan and Kenya. It is the first tool for global use aimed at facilitating self-reliance for refugees in their countries of asylum!

• In September, RefugePoint and its partners launched the Self-Reliance Initiative, which has a goal of reaching 5 million refugees with self-reliance programming over the next five years.

• Partnering with Talent Beyond Boundaries, we piloted the Economic Mobility Pathways Project in Nairobi, Kenya, which aims to help refugees to access work-based visas to Canada, connects them to Canadian employers, and puts them on a path to permanent residency.

• 15 RefugePoint staff worked as part of the Emergency Transit Mechanism Project, providing access to resettlement for refugees who were evacuated to Niger from dangerous detention centers in Libya.

RefugePoint also celebrated the recognition of our thought leadership in 2018, and we want to share these accomplishments with you! In September, RefugePoint leaders Sasha Chanoff and Amy Slaughter were honored as Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, and in June we were honored to receive the Espíritu Award from the Isabel Allende Foundation.

We have many exciting projects and events planned for 2019, and we look forward to keeping you updated!