Leaders are highly respected people in their local societies and exist as a form of trust layers helping to filter and amplify information, and bringing life-changing services to Sub-Saharan African communities.
By-invitation only network of community leaders who efficiently coordinate responses across communities and are connected with scores of NGOs to receive the latest support and advice to serve their constituents.
COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
IS KEY
With an average 32/100 score in the corruption perception index authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa are the least trusted on the planet.
LOWEST SCORING REGION :
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Local organizations, community and faith-based leaders are the focal points of collective action in the region. Policies are at high-risk of failure without their endorsement.
PROOF OF IMPACT
“RELAY helped me save the lives of my people with its free SMS tool. Ebola virus kills and everyone should tell, at least, another person about its danger and how to protect their own family. I got several calls, even from people beyond my own community, to ask for clarification on the prevention measures I wrote about."
SYLVAN KABUANGA, DRC
on the impact of the message about Ebola prevention that was sent to 34 constituents and reached out to more than 4,000 people
RELAY'S COVID-19 RESPONSE
72% UNAWARE OF SOCIAL DISTANCING RESPONSE
DRASTIC INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SOCIAL DISTANCING
KENYAN SECURITY FORCES FIRE TEAR GAS INTO A BUSY MARKET
MARCH 22
MARCH 29
MARCH 30
We polled our community members and found that 72% wasn’t aware that social-distancing was the appropriate way to reduce the spread of the virus.
Our community leaders had rapidly spread social-distancing information and a poll confirmed that only 21% remained unaware of social distancing advice.
We prefer our community network’s soft yet impactful touch to government security forces enforcing dusk-to-dawn curfews to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic by unleashing beatings and firing tear gas on crowds.
"A crucial lesson of the response to the Ebola outbreak is that even the best-designed government response will not work unless people take the mitigating steps that the government recommends. In the Ebola epidemic, initially rampant misinformation and rumors fueled distrust of formal institutions and led communities to resist acting in ways that were critical to their own safety. Eventually, authorities overcame that challenge through insights from anthropologists, who helped adapt the epidemic response to the local context, and through support from community and faith-based leaders and local organizations."
“People who have dealt with Ebola, such as David Nabarro, a special envoy for covid-19 to the World Health Organisation, say it is essential to win over communities. One sign of success in Sierra Leone was when Ebola became known in the Mende language as “bonda wote”, literally “family turn round” — a sign that people were changing behaviour. “I am absolutely convinced that African countries can get on top of this quicker than European countries.”
JOIN AGENCIES
WHO CURRENTLY SHARE VITAL INFORMATION WITH OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
Lutheran World Federation
Danish Refugee Council
FilmAid International
Humanity & Inclusion
Action Africa Help International
Waldorf Kakuma Project
Peace Winds Japan
The Center for Victims of Torture
Norwegian Refugee Council
Windle Trust International
World Vision
World Health Organization
Jesuit Refugee Services
Swiss Contact
Don Bosco Kakuma
PROOF OF IMPACT
“One of the unspoken challenges of aid agencies is to reach our constituents, especially in remote areas where communities can be very far from one another. We have programs ready to support them, but we have limited resources to spread the word. Relay helps us to communicate faster and on-target. Within 2 days, by using Relay, our programs were already shared widely, and we received double the students we hoped for that came and applied. The impact is real!”
MANAGER OF AID AGENCY IN KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP
on how RELAY supported the Humanitarian Agencies to communicate their programs
CONTACT US
FOR GENERAL INQUIRIES
via email to info@refunite.org
FOR
Community Leaders
DENMARK
Refugees United Foundation Denmark
Danneskiold-Samsoes Allé 41
DK-1434 Copenhagen
FOR
Governmental Agencies & NGOs
UNITED STATES
Refugees United Foundation USA
548 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94194-5401
UGANDA
Refugees United
Plot 3, Wampewo Close
Kololo, Kampala
