#refugees

NEWS & EVENTS

Three refugee women, walking

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How, and why, to get to a refugee camp

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iACT Stands #WithRefugees

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Refuge

The latest from iACT

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The Message They Carry

This blog was originally posted on darfurunited.com and written by Rudy Sanchez, Darfur United Assistant Coach. During our stay, one of my tasks was to conduct a short interview where one of the questions asked the refugees what they missed most about their home in Darfur. Little to my surprise, the answer always consisted of family, friends, culture, and other details that fit into one of those categories. To most of us–including myself–these things are a flight or two away,

A Goal Without a Net

This blog was originally posted on darfurunited.com and written by Mark Hodson. We’ve all come a long way in terms of distance traveled as players and as human beings. I still remember with vivid clarity the time we ran a football tryout, in the unlikely, apocalyptic setting of a refugee camp in Eastern Chad. If the truth be told, I had no idea what the ultimate goal for this team might be. To share the Darfur story was a part of it. To provide the opportunity for a small win

The Ultimate Gift

This blog was originally posted on darfurunited.com We arrived in Ostersund with six staff members. If you ask the players, we will only be returning with five. Coach Mark with DU players during training. Mohammad Adam and Sadaam had a hint of sincerity when they jokingly told me the team is going to do “whatever it takes” to keep Coach Mark in Sweden at the end of this week. If I was in their shoes, I would be saying the same thing! After a few days, there is a visible boost

Darfur United Joy

This blog was originally posted on darfurunited.com We walk off of the plane and a nice, sharp cold hits us. This is not southern California, and it’s definitely not eastern Chad. Östersund, Sweden might be an odd place for an all-refugee team from Darfur to meet up with its coaching and management team from the warm beaches just outside Los Angeles, but it also the perfect place. We make it through immigration, and the best smile ever is waiting for us. Darfur United (DU) mi

Statement on the World Unity Cup

This statement was originally posted on darfurunited.com. Thank you so much for your support of the participation of the Darfur United Men’s Team in the World Unity Cup, which will be held in London. We just found out that the players were not granted visas to enter the United Kingdom, and so, unfortunately, we have had to withdraw from the tournament. Darfur United still supports the World Unity Cup, and match times and opponents have been posted: http://worldunitycup.org/ W

Trip Report Available!

Click image to view the Trip Report. Last week, iACT team members Gabriel Stauring and Sara-Christine Dallain completed iACT’s 24th trip to eastern Chad and the organization’s first visit to refugee sites in Cameroon. It was a momentous trip for iACT and we’re excited to share the highlights, insights, and learnings with you! Here’s an overview of the trip—but for more details and stories check out the full Trip Report. In camp Goz Amer, eastern Chad the team worked with its

A New Football Academy for My New Friend, Anu

This was originally posted on darfurunited.com I made a new buddy. His name is Anu. For the four days of visiting refugee site Gado, he was next to me just about every minute. We went this way and that way, as we explored the camp and prepared for the training and selection of the new Refugees United Soccer Academy (RUSA) coaches. If I turned around, there was Anu. We had conversations—he spoke French, I spoke English, and we somehow understood each other. He watched every wa

Refugee Borders and Scars

Gado refugee site is barely 20 kilometers away from the border between Cameroon and Central African Republic (CAR). The site is on the Cameroon side, with the refugees coming from CAR. Most of them arrived in 2014, escaping brutal mass violence that continues to tear apart their small nation. There are approximately 22,000 refugees at Gado, and they are divided into Gado 1 and Gado 2—two sites that are separated by only a few meters. The homes of the refugees are made from wo

Journey to Batouri

One 5-passenger truck, 5 passengers, 8.5-hour drive, 2 pit stops, dozens of check points, 1 “speeding” ticket, 1 nicely paved road, and 1 bumpy dirt road later and we’ve arrived at Batouri, Cameroon! This is the town that will be our launching point to visit “sites” hosting refugees from the Central African Republic for the next two days. It’s so beautiful here. All around us are chirping birds and vibrant green, lush tropical forest. En route we passed numerous small towns,

Top 10 Things I’ve Learned (on my 23rd visit to Darfuri refugee camps)

1. Once the hunger in their bellies is subdued, children’s hunger for learning and experiencing life flourishes. 2. “It has been a lost generation—12 years that are lost and will never be recovered, even if the war stopped today.” Oumda Tarbosh 3. I can eat SO MUCH LESS than I eat when back home. (But don’t bet on me doing it when I get back. I love food.) 4. Can’t stop women. I learned this a long time ago, but it keeps getting reinforced. 5. There can be islands of peace, e

Come With Us, Meet Our Friends

We left LAX on Saturday on our 23rd trip to refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border. After a four hour layover in Paris, we landed in Gabon on Sunday night. Gabon?! It’s the third time I’ve been to Gabon, and none of those times was it part of the plan. Chad never makes it easy for you. I was prepared for the normal logistical obstacles that come along once you land in the capital, but this time we couldn’t even land because of a sand storm. Flying into Goz Beida, eastern C

Human-Centered Design for Refugee Leadership Development

We’re back from the IDEO.org human-centered design bootcamp in Kampala, Uganda and my notebook is full of notes, drawings, and sticky notes. It’s bursting with ideas, questions, prototypes, and plans for expanding our Little Ripples (LR) program to better support the leadership development of the refugee female teachers hired and trained to implement the LR program and make it their own. Months and months ago, iACT responded to startup accelerator Amplify’s global challenge:

“How might we improve education and expand learning opportunities for refugees around the worl

i-ACT has joined the Amplify Refugee Education Challenge, in order to contribute to solutions for improved learning opportunities for refugees around the world. In partnership with UNICEF Innovation and UNHCR, Amplify is asking people and organizations around the world to design education solutions that help refugees learn new skills and gain access to quality education. In doing so, Amplify is first compiling pre-challenge research until April 21st, to learn from educational

building upon what they already have

I often hear friends and colleagues say with sympathy and amazement, “they have nothing and yet they still smile”. This is a common reflection from people that see the videos and images i-ACT shares from eastern Chad. “They” being the refugees from Darfur, living in refugee camps. To the onlooker, they might have nothing. However, time spent with the Darfuri refugees will reveal that they in fact have a lot. We just have to shift our view and notion of what it means to have.

Sundays, Books and Connections

As I write this, its Sunday. I’m working, but happily so. A day of rest is conducive to sitting with my computer, coffee and no distractions. I know I’m not the only one. It‘s safe to say the i-ACT team rarely stops. I receive emails at all hours and days of the week. But again, happily so. I sit in my room writing and working, I’m surrounded by the books I’ve kept over the years. The pages I’ve read, marked, folded and highlighted. Most having to do with development work, Af

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