RefugePoint

RefugePoint is a non-profit organization that has worked to provide lasting solutions to the world's most at-risk refugees since 2005. Between 2005-2015, RefugePoint referred over 30,000 refugees for resettlement.

RefugePoint works to identify and protect refugees who have fallen through the cracks of humanitarian assistance, with an emphasis on serving women, children, and urban refugees. RefugePoint is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, and Nairobi, Kenya.

The organization has worked primarily in over 20 countries, and over 48 locations across Africa, including: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. RefugePoint is a member of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of U.S. non-governmental organizations focused on refugee protection.^[1]

History

RefugePoint was founded in 2005 by Sasha Chanoff and Dr. John Wagacha Burton. While conducting refugee rescue operations with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Sasha became aware of the unseen and therefore unmet needs of the many refugees living in urban settings.^[2]

Since its inception, RefugePoint has engaged in a strategic partnership with the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, building off of their common goal to engage others in critical thinking about all sides on an issue.^[3]

RefugePoint continues to evolve and serve the needs of refugees both from its office in Cambridge, Massachusetts and from its office located in Nairobi, Kenya.^[4]

On June 29, 2011 Mapendo announced that it changed its name to RefugePoint, "in order to better reflect its core mission of protecting the world’s most vulnerable and forgotten refugees."

Sasha Chanoff, RefugePoint’s executive director, explained that the organization’s staff have been impressed for years by the many refugees who relate that contact with RefugePoint became the turning point in their lives. “Our effort,” he says, “is to provide lasting solutions for people fleeing from persecution, war, and genocide. The new name, RefugePoint, reflects the moment when those most at risk see the possibility of deliverance from lives of fear and desperation and a path opening up toward new lives for themselves and their families.”^[5]

Programs

RefugePoint works in Africa to identify and assist refugees who are at high risk for personal harm. RefugePoint’s mission is to provide lasting solutions for the world’s most vulnerable refugees. The organization addresses the critical and unmet needs of those who fall through the cracks of humanitarian assistance and have no other options for survival, with a focus on women, children, and urban refugees.

The Clinic The medical clinic in Nairobi was created to provide health care to marginalized and impoverished refugee survivors of trauma. Staffed by Kenyan medical professionals, it serves HIV positive people, torture survivors, widows with children, and others at risk who have urgent medical needs and no access to health care.

Rescue and Protection RefugePoint identifies and assists individuals, families and groups of people fleeing war and conflict who need urgent and lifesaving assistance. They work with governments, the United Nations, and other aid agencies to identify durable solutions for people in danger. They are actively assisting refugees across east and central Africa through this initiative.

Awareness Programs RefugePoint seeks to raise awareness and understanding for marginalized refugee communities. To this end, they have undertaken a series of photography and video projects. The information is exhibited and distributed in the United States through collaborations with refugee resettlement agencies and community-based organizations.

Awards

2013: The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School named RefugePoint founder and executive director Sasha Chanoff the 2013 recipient of the Gleitsman International Activist Award. The award is given biennially to a leader who has “improved the quality of life abroad and inspired others to do the same.”^[6]

2010: RefugePoint's efforts were awarded with the Charles Bronfman Prize.^[7]

2007: RefugePoint received a Draper Richards Fellowship in 2007.^[8]

2006: RefugePoint won an Echoing Green Fellowship ^[9] and was named a Waldzell Institute "Architect of the Future."^[10]

Media

Below are the most recent mentions of RefugePoint in the news in reverse chronological order.

ABC World News: In 2013, ABC World News revisited its 2010 resettlement story after RefugePoint helped facilitate a reunion between the Darfuri family and their missing fourteen-year-old daughter after nine years of separation.^[11]

CBS's 60 Minutes: Founder and Executive Director Sasha Chanoff interviewed in 2002 and 2013 about the resettlement of the Lost Boys of Sudan to the United States both at the time of resettlement and in a retrospective piece following up on the Lost Boys 12 years later.^[12][13]

WBUR's Here & Now: In March 2013, Founder and Executive Director Sasha Chanoff joined former Lost Girl Yar Ayuel as she reflects on her experiences as a refugee and the dangers refugee girls still face today.^[14]

The Boston Globe: In 2013, Sasha Chanoff wrote an editorial about how the Lost Girls of Sudan were left out of humanitarian programming, and about the ongoing plight of refugee girls.^[15]

The Huffington Post: On election day in Kenya in 2013, Communications Officer Cheryl Hamilton wrote about one refugee boy and his mother’s hope for his future.^[16]

The Huffington Post: 2012: Founder and Executive Director Sasha Chanoff blogged about one of RefugePoint’s earliest clients finding his parents alive after 17 years.^[17]

The New York Times Magazine: In 2011, the magazine followed a RefugePoint social worker on food distribution day, part of the organization's life-saving urban refugee protection program.^[18]

ABC World News: In 2010, ABC World News covered the resettlement of one Darfuri refugee family that RefugePoint (then Mapendo International) helped.^[19]

The Boston Globe featured an article on Mapendo International's (now RefugePoint) efforts on its front page on June 18, 2009.^[20]

The New York Times cited Mapendo's (now RefugePoint) involvement in the effort to resettle survivors of the Gatumba camp massacre.^[21]

The Skoll Foundation's Social Edge highlighted Sasha Chanoff and Mapendo (now RefugePoint) in a video on their website.^[22]

Elle Magazine in France wrote an article on Mapendo's (now RefugePoint) efforts in the April 23rd, 2007 edition.^[23]

Leadership

• Sasha Chanoff, Founder & Executive Director
• Amy Slaughter, Chief Operating Officer

Board of Directors

• Sasha Chanoff
• Stephanie Dodson
• Daniel A. Draper, Treasurer
• Jessica Houssian, Chair
• G. Barrie Landry
• George Lehner, JD
• M’Imunya J. Machoki, Kenyan Board
• William P. Mayer
• Samora Otieno, MD

External links

• RefugePoint Website
• RefugePoint Twitter
• RefugePoint Facebook Page
• RefugePoint Instagram

References