2020 Annual Report
a year of resilience and innovation
COVID-19 changed all of our lives and created unprecedented challenges for refugees.
Despite unique obstacles, we were inspired by the inventive ways in which our staff and those we serve adapted. Many of our clients in Nairobi, Kenya, like Balolwa, whose story appears in this report, found ways to continue earning a living by changing their business models. Because we have private, flexible funding, we immediately responded by adapting our work to emerging needs. Staff began delivering services virtually, including conducting resettlement interviews.
The unique position we hold as a front-line agency in identifying people for resettlement enabled us to expand innovative programs focused on relocating refugees through economic and education pathways and increased efforts to reunite families. We also reached a milestone in advancing self-reliance for refugees globally, which is a key to the future of humanitarian response for the majority who are stuck indefinitely in the country to which they’ve fled.
We hope that you’ll enjoy learning more about our efforts and how we found ways to celebrate (including our 15th anniversary!), despite the year’s immense challenges.
We would not be here without the creativity and resilience of our clients; the passion, intelligence, and dedication of our staff; and the extraordinary support of many individuals, foundations, and institutions. Thank you for your dedication at this critical moment.
Sasha Chanoff: Founder and Executive Director
Mission
We find lasting solutions for the world’s most at-risk refugees and support the humanitarian community to do the same. We do that through self-reliance, and resettlement & other pathways.
self-reliance
We help refugees to stabilize in the countries to which they have fled so that they can meet their essential needs on their own.
Resettlement & Other pathways
We help refugees to permanently relocate to safe countries where they can rebuild their lives.
Self-reliance: 2020 highlights
In 2020, we celebrated a monumental milestone in our self-reliance work! In May, the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, co-led by RefugePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission, launched the Self-Reliance Index, the first global tool to measure the progress of refugee households on their paths to self-reliance.
Meanwhile, our Urban Refugee Protection Program staff in Nairobi, Kenya, made fast and significant changes to our programming to ensure that our clients continued to receive undisrupted services throughout the pandemic.
Launch of the self-reliance Index
The Self-Reliance Index (SRI) tool, which was launched in May by the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI), co-led by RefugePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission, is being used by agencies around the world to inform their self-reliance programming, monitor impact, and identify trends among displaced populations in different contexts. The tool is also enabling the humanitarian community to build an evidence base of ‘what works’ to help refugees become and remain self-reliant.
The Index was developed during a rigorous three-year process that included input from over 25 partner organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), international and national NGOs, research organizations, funders, and academics.
Since the May 2020 launch of the Self-Reliance Index, the tool that was downloaded over 730 times in 2020. If you are interested in downloading the tool, you can do so here.
RefugePoint has trained 28 partners to use the Self-Reliance Index (SRI) in 18 different countries. 784 refugee households participated in SRI assessments by partners.
In 2020, 11 agencies used the Self-Reliance Index tool to inform their programs in Aruba, Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, South Sudan, Syria, and Zambia.
The Self-Reliance Index is available in five languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, and Swahili, and across several different mobile data-collection platforms.
Urban Refugee Protection Program
Our Urban Refugee Protection Program (URPP) staff made fast and significant changes to our programming to ensure that our clients in Nairobi, Kenya, continued to receive undisrupted services throughout the pandemic. When our offices were forced to close, our teams quickly adapted to create virtual access to many of the services that we typically offer in person. We ensured that clients continued to receive food support, rent assistance, business training, medical support, and counseling.
undisrupted services
Our team distributed hand-washing supplies to all of our clients and ensured that prescriptions and food were delivered to those unable to leave their households. We began offering remote counseling, business support, and social work services through phone calls, Zoom, and WhatsApp.
Public Health Info
During a time when fake news was rampant, our medical team sent frequent informational text messages to over 5,000 refugees in multiple languages. The messages included critical public health information about coronavirus symptoms, hotlines to call for information, health and safety measures, government regulations, mental health support, and messages of hope – reassuring clients during this difficult time.
Emergency Support
Although many refugees found creative ways to keep their businesses afloat, many did not have the capacity to adapt to the rapidly changing economy. Some clients who had graduated from RefugePoint services needed emergency assistance due to the pandemic's devastating financial effects. Emergency grants enabled us to support an additional 415 refugees, increasing our total number of core clients served in 2020 to 1,803.
New Initiatives in Nairobi
The Urban Refugee Protection Program launched several new initiatives in 2020, including integrating trauma-informed care principles, forming a new support group for female caregivers of children with chronic health conditions, and launching a women's therapy group for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) for community members from the Great Lakes region.
Client story: Balolwa
In February 2020, Balolwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, completed RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training and received a small grant to expand her business selling tomatoes. Balolwa used the grant to add onions and garlic to her vegetable stand. Her business was doing well, but in May 2020, all of Balolwa’s vegetables were stolen at the market. Unfortunately, many of our clients reported an increase in theft and insecurity as a result of the pandemic. Since Balolwa had put aside savings, she was able to use that money to restart her business and had a lockable storage box built to prevent future theft.
Despite Balolwa’s resilience and business acumen, her sales dropped during the pandemic, as they did for businesses worldwide. In May 2020, Balolwa began receiving food support from RefugePoint so that she could focus on keeping her business afloat.
“When I started receiving food support, I saw improvements in my family. The business was meager during the pandemic. It would take me two to three times longer than usual to sell even one crate of tomatoes, but I wasn’t worried because I knew that at least we had food in the house. In the future, I see my life will be much better than it used to be. I have hope now,” Balolwa told us, as she turned to help a customer at her vegetable stand.
In 2020, we reached 12,314 clients through our Urban Refugee Protection Program, through outreach initiatives. 310 clients graduated from the program with sufficient earnings to support themselves.
In 2020, our Urban Refugee Protection Program in Nairobi, Kenya, supported 1,837 core clients.
We provided medical care to 1,198 clients, education assistance to 579 clients, counseling to 325 clients, and food assistance to 2,098 clients.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, RefugePoint began offering emergency time-bound support to 298 additional clients.
In 2020, we supported a total of 208 businesses and expanded our livelihoods support to facilitate the start-up of 77 client businesses.
Resettlement & other pathways: 2020 highlights
RefugePoint has become established as one of the international community’s leading resettlement organizations. We refer refugees for resettlement through our Urban Refugee Protection Program (URPP) in Nairobi, as well as through our partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), through which we employ expert resettlement staff, placing them in UNHCR operations globally.
In addition to helping refugees access lasting solutions in 2020, our Experts also improved systems to make those solutions more accessible and equitable. We also worked to relocate refugees to safety through other pathways, such as family reunification, employment, and education.
Resettlement
The COVID-19 pandemic was a shock to the entire global humanitarian system, and our resettlement program was no exception. Despite the many challenges our staff faced in 2020, our Experts supported 6,579 refugees to relocate to safety. Our Experts worked on cases ranging from helping children to access life-saving medical interventions abroad, to supporting families who were forced to flee their homes more than a decade ago.
Client story: Child Protection
In a complex medical emergency, time is of the essence. In 2020, our Expert in Sudan expedited resettlement services for a child who required urgent medical attention. The five-month-old boy, who had been diagnosed with a congenital condition, was in pain and needed specialized care that was difficult to access locally.
Despite the many challenges that our Expert faced working on such a time-sensitive case during the COVID-19 pandemic, the family's application was processed and cleared for departure within two and a half months, which was a record time. Resettlement processing typically takes several years or longer due to procedural requirements and offers no guarantee of departure. The family was exhilarated when they received the news that they would be resettled and that their baby would receive the medical treatment he needed.
"Before they left, we had a light discussion about snow and all the beautiful things they would find in the resettlement country, a testament of how things had changed for the family," the Expert shared with us.
Other Pathways
In recent years, our deployment program has begun to expand to include programs that aim to help refugees take advantage of other pathways to relocate to permanent, new homes. For example, we are working with UNHCR and other partners to identify refugees in Ethiopia who may be eligible for scholarships and education visas to Italy. We are a partner in Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Project, which seeks to help skilled refugees immigrate to Canada to fill critical labor shortages there.
We are also one of the founding partners in the Central Mediterranean Family Reunification Project, UNHCR’s first program dedicated to reuniting separated refugee families through pathways other than resettlement. Our role in the program, now in its second year, is to identify refugees who have family links in other countries that would allow them to apply for legal immigration. The work focuses on unaccompanied and separated children. In 2020, we played a role in helping 11-year-old Mewael to reunite with his mother in Italy after eight years of separation—see their emotional reunion in the video to the left!
In 2020, despite pandemic-imposed travel restrictions, multiple unaccompanied children in detention centers in Libya, who were victims of human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse, were able to board flights to Europe, where they reunited with loved ones. We supported hundreds more children to navigate the complexities of the family reunification application process for countries across Europe and North America, with the hopes of reunifying with their families someday soon.
RefugePoint is one of the very few organizations at the forefront of implementing resettlement and several other pathways that, collectively, should lead to as many as three million refugees benefiting from third-country solutions by 2028.
Since 2005, we’ve assisted 92,135 individuals in accessing resettlement and other pathways to relocate to safety.
In 2020, our Experts assisted refugees with casework in 93 locations throughout 30 countries of asylum and supported 6,579 refugees to access pathways to relocate to safety.
In 2020, we trained 1,696 individuals on resettlement and related casework.
Since 2005, our Experts have assisted refugees with casework in 222 locations in 46 countries.
In 2020, we had 47 Experts working on resettlement, child protection, and legal immigration pathways aside from resettlement.
“Helping Peter navigate through this process has shown me that for U.S. higher education to truly be accessible to refugees in remote locations, someone needs to play a bridge role to connect and educate both parties about each other,” said the Expert. “It was clear to me that the university really wanted Peter and other students like him, and they just needed some help to make that happen.”
Client story: Peter
In addition to typical refugee resettlement programs, refugees can also pursue alternative pathways to relocate to safe countries, such as through higher education. In 2020, RefugePoint hired a Complementary Pathways Expert who focuses solely on helping refugees to access education as a pathway to relocate to safety. The Expert recently advocated on behalf of Peter*, a young man living in a refugee camp in East Africa.
Peter, who had independently applied to a master’s degree program at a prestigious university in the U.S., was thrilled when he received the news that he’d been granted admission along with a partial tuition scholarship. However, Peter quickly realized that he would not be able to cover the remaining tuition, in addition to the high cost of living in the city where the university is located.
For many other refugee students, navigating the intricacies of the U.S. higher education system and financial aid can be extremely challenging. Peter lacked reliable internet access in the camp, which made communicating with the university difficult. Additionally, he needed to advocate for additional financial assistance to cover his graduate program and living expenses associated with being in a major U.S. city. Our Expert served as a bridge between Peter and the university and supported Peter in navigating the financial aid process. Ultimately, Peter was granted a full scholarship and will be starting his master’s degree program in the fall of 2021!
*Peter is a pseudonym
organizational highlights
child 10 award
In January 2020, Martin Anderson (photo far right), our Director of International Programs, received the Child 10 award for his and RefugePoint’s dedicated fight to combat child trafficking on the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea and support the safe migration of children seeking refuge in Europe. Martin joined the nine other awardees for an award ceremony and a high-level summit in Malmö, Sweden. All of the awardees received $10,000 to strengthen, develop, and create sustainability in their organizations. The awardees joined forces throughout 2020 in their advocacy and outreach work to draw attention to and prevent the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children.
15th anniversary
2020 marked our 15th anniversary, and we were thrilled to celebrate the progress we’ve made since RefugePoint was founded in 2005. Since 2005, we’ve helped 92,135 individuals to access resettlement and other pathways to relocate to safety. Through training, global policy influence, and other activities, we’ve contributed to a system that has referred 1.5 million refugees for resettlement in the past 15 years. Our organization has grown tremendously — we started with a staff of five in 2005 and grew to 115 in 2020. However, our mission remains the same: to help those stuck indefinitely to build better, more normal lives, and to relocate those who cannot safely stay where they are. We invite you to explore this timeline, highlighting our top 15 milestones over the past 15 years. Also, check out this video with testimonials from former clients who were resettled!
leading role: ATCR
The Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) were held as a series of virtual meetings throughout May and June. RefugePoint was among the leading voices in the discussions, and various RefugePoint staff played prominent presenting roles in five of the nine sessions. Our team presented on topics such as resettlement, economic mobility, and legal immigration pathways aside from resettlement. RefugePoint was a highly visible organization throughout the two-month-long series of working meetings, reflecting our leading role in implementing programs and in utilizing that expertise for the benefit of global policy conversations.
Anti-Racism Work
In 2020 we also faced the ongoing racism pandemic. In response, RefugePoint formed an Anti-Racism Working Group, which focuses on laying the groundwork for ongoing organizational change through the integration of anti-racism policies and principles. These are intended to reflect our long-term commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization. We also established and continue to facilitate regular all-staff drop-in meetings on racism in order to provide a venue for critical dialogue and peer support. Additionally, we took steps towards becoming a Trauma-Informed Organization, which included training our field staff about participatory, inclusive, and culturally-centered approaches to service provision.
The lifeline
We could not have achieved all that we did in 2020 without the integral donors who generously invested ($50,000+) in our mission to make long-term, systematic change.
5Together Foundation
AJG Foundation
The Isabel Allende Foundation
Anonymous
The Charitable Foundation
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The ELMA Relief Foundation
Elmo Foundation
Focusing Philanthropy
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Goodwin Procter Law Firm
The Houssian Foundation
IKEA Foundation
G. Barrie Landry
Landry Family Foundation
Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Newman's Own Foundation
Edward Roche
The Shapiro Foundation
Tableau Foundation
UNHCR
With very special thanks to the following donors who showed extraordinary support ($10,000– $49,999) for our mission in 2020.
Alchemy Foundation
Anonymous
Anonymous
The Apatow-Mann Family Foundation, Inc.
Arlene Foundation
Deborah and Gregory Brill
Rita and Charles Bronfman Philanthropic Fund
Matt and Lisa Chanoff
Child10 Foundation
Stephanie Dodson Cornell and James Cornell Family Foundation
The William H. Donner Foundation, Inc.
English Family Gift Fund
The Good Lie Fund of Tides Foundation
Gussack-Stein Charitable Fund
Henry Family Charitable Fund
Susan Lowenberg and Joyce Newstat
The Nommontu Foundation
Josh and Angela Schawbel Foundation
Seed the Dream Foundation
Select Equity Group Foundation
Stephanie and Fred Shuman Family Foundation
Edward Stern and Stephanie Rein Charitable Fund
Richard and Jeanne Weaver
The following donors provided outstanding support ($1,000–$9,999) in 2020.
Roswitha and AJ Agarwal
Anonymous
Anonymous
Ansara Family Fund
James Balkcom
Dr. Jonathan and Monique Bamel
Kenneth Batts
Byers Family Giving Fund
Campbell Foundation Fund
Sasha and Marni Chanoff
Martha Davis
Lauren Dias and Peter Kochansky
Deborah Smith Douglas
The Ettinger Foundation
Eyre Family Foundation
John and Stacey Fisk
Joyce Fletcher
Elizabeth Floor
Kevin and Celeste Ford
Matthew & Sarah Forti Price Charitable Fund
FThree Foundation
Merrick Furst and April Dworetz
Janice Goodman
Jon and Mindy Gray Family Foundation
Shoshana Grossman-Crist
John and Olga Guttag
Michael Guttag
Todd Herman
The Joichi and Mikuza Ito Fund
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Evan and Florence Janovic
Robert and Joyce Kleiner
Sirkku Konttinen
The Lehner Fund
Daniel and Stacy Lennon
Mr. and Mrs. William Lincoln
Lynne and Jesse Lipcon
Simon Lipskar
Jessica and Colin Macdonald
William P. Mayer
MMHBO Fund
Morrison Family Charitable Trust
Kenneth O'Connor and Dorothy Rowe
Ronak Patel
Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation
Kim and Paul Polman
The Sherwood Family Trust
Shippy Foundation
Simon Family Philanthropic Foundation Inc.
Gillian Sorensen
Elizabeth and Oliver Stanton Foundation
Christopher Trost
Rick and Patti Wayne
Ted and Mary Wendell
Vitol Foundation
We also thank our monthly sustainers for their consistent support and recognition that serving refugees is a complex and ongoing process.
Jenny Bonham-Carter
Matthew Engler
Sarah Hidey
Jozee Kat
James E. Lassiter
Ann Lees
Patrick Musabyi
Kim Norbert
Paul Onimbo
Ken Pruitt
Peter Shirley
Mark E. Swartz
Board of Directors
A huge thanks to our U.S. and Kenya Board of Directors!
WILLIAM P. MAYER: Partner, Goodwin Procter (USA)
FARAH MOHAMED: Board Director (USA)
DR. SAMORA OTIENO: MD, Board Director (Kenya)
EDWARD SHAPIRO: Trustee For The Shapiro Foundation And President Of Shapiro Investment Company, LLC (USA)
COLLEEN TIGHE: Refugee Resettlement, International Grant Making and Development (Kenya)
EDITH TYE: Board Director (USA)
SANDRA UWIRINGIYIMANA: Board Director (USA)
SHEIKHA ALI: International Organization For Migration (Kenya and USA)
SASHA CHANOFF: Executive Director, RefugePoint (USA)
STEPHANIE DODSON: Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan (USA)
DANIEL DRAPER (Treasurer): CPA, President, Draper Tax Consulting (USA)
ELIZABETH FERRIS: Research Professor, Institute For The Study Of International Migration Georgetown University (USA)
G. BARRIE LANDRY: Trustee, Landry Family Foundation (USA)
GEORGE LEHNER (Chair): Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP (USA)
DR. M’IMUNYA J. MACHOKI: MD, Board Director (Kenya)
