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The Cracks in Refugee Communities
In my eight months working with RefugePoint, I’ve often been impressed and moved by the strength of the communities refugees have created for themselves in their new home. Most of our clients seem to have a story about other refugees—strangers—helping them in those first desperate hours after arrival, giving them shelter in already crowded rooms…
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Huffington Post 2013: Election day in Kenya, Communications Officer Cheryl Hamilton writes about one refugee boy and his mother’s hope for his future
Huffington Post 2013: Election day in Kenya, Communications Officer Cheryl Hamilton writes about one refugee boy and his mother’s hope for his future. On March 3rd, RefugePoint’s Communication Officer Cheryl Hamilton joined Executive Director Sasha Chanoff as a blogger for the Huffington Post. In her first article, Hamilton recalls a conversation she had with a refugee…
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The Quiet Refugee Girl
There seems to be an age at which refugee girls grow quiet. Toddlers tend to chatter unreservedly and reach up to touch my unfamiliar hair; older girls will ask to play with my camera and giggle when their faces appear on the screen. But by the time they reach eleven or twelve, most of the…
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Refugee Women and Civil Society
November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day that is particularly relevant to RefugePoint’s mission to find lasting solutions for the world’s most vulnerable refugees. RefugePoint has increasingly focused on particularly vulnerable refugee women who are in perilous situations. Exposed to widespread sexual gender based violence (SGBV) and…
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A universal challenge, childcare poses additional obstacle for refugees
Aliah, a 23-year-old refugee, has a bubbly demeanor that disguises the monumental obstacles she faces every day. As the guardian for her younger siblings as well as her own kids, she has to cover rising rent and food costs in an African city where refugees are rarely able to find steady work. Her neighborhood has…
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Huffington Post 2012: Refugee Finds His Parents Alive After Seventeen Years
Huffington Post 2012: Founder and Executive Director Sasha Chanoff blogs about one of RefugePoint’s earliest clients finding his parents alive after 17 years.
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Survival Sex Often the Only Option for Refugee Women
Refugee women across Africa are subject to a range of gender-based violence from sexual assault to forced prostitution. In the most desperate cases, refugee women become sex workers to earn income in their countries of asylum when no other options are available to survive. This high-risk activity makes these women among some of the most…
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Father fearful for remaining daughter
In our effort to reach the most vulnerable refugees like the daughter described in this post, RefugePoint often works in difficult environments across Africa. This year in Dadaab refugee camp, there were repeated bomb attacks while in Cairo mass protests routinely affected local travel and staff security. In some countries, RefugePoint officers travel as far…
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Remembering Refugees During a Revolution
Since January 2011, the political uprising in Egypt has dominated the international news. The fall of President Hosni Mubarak has led to the formidable task of implementing a new democracy, which has seldom been smooth. Just this week, Egypt’s highest court dissolved the parliament and called for a new constitution, leaving the country’s leadership under…
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RefugePoint reaches out to deaf community
Imagine growing up in a small village where your family herds goats and sheep. One morning while reading under a tree, you suddenly see your neighbors running in every different direction. Dust swirls around them and you smell smoke. In the distance, there are men with large guns in trucks and you see that your…