Along with Iranian architect Yasaman Esmaili, Rania co-founded “Color my Home:” a project that empowers displaced children by transforming memories of home into tangible artwork, helping them share experiences that are otherwise difficult to express between languages. Her book project This is Home is an ever-evolving infographic guide designed to help refugees assimilate into their new homes. The project has met with resounding success. The This is Home guide book has been translated to Farsi, Dari, and Pashto. Physical and digital copies were distributed to all NGOs supporting the Afghan refugees who are settling in The US. 

Recently, Rania founded Daarna, a community-based organization that believes in social equity and community-based designs as solutions to end displacement. By partnering with refugees, local communities, activists, and organizations, such as the DC based Fresh Start Refugees organization, Daarna aims to provide resources that can empower those forcibly displaced to heal, adjust, and build their new communities. The organization’s latest project, “Ahlan”, is a mobile app based on This is Home to help refugees familiarize themselves with their new neighborhoods and cities.

Currently, Rania and the Daarna team are working on version 2.0 of Ahlan. As they are partnering with US nonprofit organizations to hire refugees to design and develop the app, this new iteration will not only be designed for refugees, but by refugees themselves. 

We were fortunate enough to be joined by Rania on our podcast Social Design Insights, where she shared with us her vision of a world where refugees are welcome.

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The Night Loo allows women and girls living in refugee camps to relieve themselves within the safety and comfort of their own shelter at night, when the threat of rape makes going to the communal latrines too dangerous. The injection molded silicone loo is designed for squatting over; the petal-like flaps create a splash guard when open and snap closed to cover the contents after use. After urinating and rinsing herself, the user drops in a small pre-portioned packet of super-absorbent polymer encased in dissolving PVA film, which turns liquid waste into an odorless powder in less than one minute. In the morning she can carry the loo to the latrines; one end pops out into a spout, allowing her to simply pour out the powder. The loo is easily cleaned by unfolding it flat. The product is compact, simple to use, and safe to keep inside the living quarters. 

The Night Loo has already received international attention, including the Core77 Design Award for Design for Social Impact (2018), a finalist for the IDSA/IDEA Award, as well as a finalist for the James Dyson Award.

We were able to catch up with Anna Meddaugh on our podcast Social Design Insights, where she discussed the role of prototyping, her process and how she plans to develop the Night Loo into production.

Have a listen.

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Now, anyone on the site can pledge to fill a need, and the need is ultimately fulfilled by a supplier on the ground or in the area. The process cuts down on shipping, lag times, miscommunications and waste. 

In response to the influx of Afghan refugees in the fall of 2021, NeedsList created a custom, branded marketplace for refugee resettlement agencies and businesses across the country to post needs and make offers for Afghan neighbors. Even prior to launch, over $2 million in resources had been committed to welcome refugees. 

Currently, the team at NeedsList is working on a project focused on Venezuela, where the crisis and mass displacement have made it difficult to identify the resources needed at the community level across Latin America. Red Recuperación is an online marketplace that will aggregate needs from frontline workers, and match them with offers from local businesses and the Venezuelan diaspora. 

Recently, NeedsList announced they will be receiving a one million dollar grant and a pro bono team of software engineers from Google.org to scale their platform globally. They will work with Google Fellows on a software deployment to address the crisis in Ukraine and bordering countries. Engineers will incorporate AI solutions and cloud optimization and will add multilingual support to initial work in Ukraine response and to the free, public version of the software for future crises that is set to launch later this year.

NeedsList software has now been deployed in over 20 countries worldwide, directing over $20 million in resources to local communities. 

Co-founder Tasha has studied and worked in communities including the U.S./Mexican border, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand, and spent 2006-7 on a Fulbright Fellowship in Tarragona, Spain. She speaks regularly about the role of tech in the refugee crisis. We were fortunate enough to have her visit our show, Social Design Insights.

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The Refugee Academy is founded on the belief that refugees and immigrants can be a national asset and are human beings, besides.  Their open education philosophy is rooted in the UN’s universal declaration of human rights

The Academy provides native-language education to help migrants find work within Germany.  It utilizes volunteers who are willing to teach, and the curriculum isn’t limited to any particular trade, skill or ideology.

Beyond mere vocational training, the Refugee Academy emphasizes the creation of community and the social construction of a new homeland.  They organize city tours and classes to help migrants understand more about Germany. In a sense, their work is really about designing new ways to think about migration – work that is desperately needed in our current geopolitical landscape.

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Migration and climate change are often separate topics at the institutional and policy levels. The international apparatus that exists to address migration was formed to address migrations instigated by war, political persecution, and similar factors. Over the years, however, climate change has also become a trigger for migration. Consequently, no discussion of one of the two topics would be complete without addressing the other.

Mariam has coordinated IOM’s global inputs to the UNFCCC process for COP20 and COP21 and has led training sessions, side events, press conferences, and exhibitions related to migration in a changing climate.

Mariam is also the editor of the IOM Outlook on Migration, Environment and Climate Change (2014) and author of “Law Review: Environmental Migration – Human Rights and Legal Issues”, Insights on Law and Society, American Bar Association, Chicago, (2014) and “Organizational Perspectives on Environmental Migration”, Routledge, London, (2015).

We were lucky enough to be joined by Ms. Chazalnoel on Social Design Insights, where she talked with us about migration and its future in a climate-changed world.

The post 112 | Giving Migrants a Voice appeared first on Curry Stone Foundation.

Beyond her role as an educator, Dr. Hall is an advocate for more diverse voices on New Zealand’s role in the world. She co-founded the independent organization, Te Kuaka (formerly New Zealand Alternative), which promotes a progressive role for New Zealand in the international sphere. She also co-edited the book, Beyond These Shores, Aotearoa and the World, and outlined how the country’s Labor-led government could rethink its foreign policy on gender equality, aid, and indigenous relations. Articles related to her advocacy include comments on New Zealand’s proposed humanitarian visa for climate refugees, on what a  progressive foreign policy would look like for the country, and on Jacinda Ardern’s visit to the United States.

Increasingly, Dr. Hall writes about the use by organizations of digital tools and platforms to advocate for issues across national boundaries. Most recently, Dr. Hall wrote a book examining how transnational advocacy is changing the digital era. More specifically, the book looks at how activists are using digital tools and tactics to collaborate across national boundaries. Although these activists tackle many global issues—such as climate change, trade, and refugees—she finds that they predominantly target the nation-state in their campaigns. 

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Dr. Hall on Social Design Insights, where she discussed her work and the pantheon of international agencies that shape refugees and migration. Have a listen at the link above!

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Throughout his career, Kleinschmidt’s practice and advocacy have pushed a consistent theme: that the ‘othering’ of refugees is toxic to our own well-being and is generally wrongheaded. Kilian believes in the power of connectivity, and that we can fix most issues through better and more effective access of the disadvantaged populations and fragile regions to the immense wealth of know-how, technologies, and finance that we have accumulated collectively. It is his conviction that the global brain and the collective resilience grow with every connection made successfully solving a challenge and seizing an opportunity.

Under Kilian’s leadership, IPA Switxboard is implementing a large migration management project “Harraga.” It is also developing a large rural farm and processing plant in South Tunisia in the region of Tatatouine. The joint enterprise is now primarily based in Tunisia, though IPA will soon be working in Libya and Cyprus.

Kilian is currently developing and advising a number of ventures which aim at innovative migration management, sustainable investment, and social impact in Tunisia. His work on emerging cities, Special Development Zones, and urbanization of refugee camps is widely recognized as the way forward in dealing with mass migration, population shifts, and transformation of society. He is challenging the Humanitarian Aid Sector through a range of new and unorthodox partnerships, technologies, and ways of financing building on networking and swarm intelligence rather than hierarchies and ineffective bureaucracies. 

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