Entrants's Name: Christopher Mikkelsen

Country: Denmark

Field: Human Rights

Innovation - idea: Refugees United has created an online database, wherein refugees can register and search anonymously for family and friends they have lost contact with during their escape. You may register with anything from a birthmark, nickname or any other family known trait, coupled with a safe mail email, guaranteeing you 'selective' anonymity. The system is borderless, free to use and connects all refugees.www.refunite.org

Innovation - why it is pioneering: Refugees United is pioneering in establishing the first online, anonymous database, wherein the millions of refugees in our world can seek family effortlessly, without having to be confronted by government agencies, language barriers, difficult forms to fill in, wait lists etc. and so on. It is a self-empowering and streamlined way to reconnect with not only family, but, importantly, friends too!

Strategy - how it achieves impact: Refugees United has been in function officially for about 4 months. We travel the globe, speaking at conferences, forming strategic alliances and spreading the word. Given the difficulty of spreading the knowledge to the end user, it is of extreme importance that we get out into the local milieus of refugees across the globe. To achieve this, we employ many volunteers who visit refugee centres, asylum centres etc. We furthermore work closely with various other organizations and refugee councils, such as the New Zealand, Serbien, Dutch, Danish etc. Councils, as well as Red Cross Middle East, Red Cross Armenia and opening up with the IOM as we speak. Hundreds of smaller org.'s link to us as well. The most important aspect of the site is user friendliness, easy to understand language and accessibility to spreading the word. We conduct Internet Drive campaigns through our active Myspace page, spreading the word far into the reaches of our world.

Strategy - growth plans: Our growth plan is much reflected in the strategy above. We keep forming alliances, keep doing interviews and reports, keep hiring volunteers, keep informing refugees..In short, we keep fighting to spread the word. In August, we are meeting with the Danish Ministers of Justice and Integration to place a strategy to bring the initiative onto a EU scale.

Impact to date: Refugees United is unique in our field of providing the online service of seeking for family. To have others pop up, would only dilute the impact, wherefore we solidified ourselves extremely well before launching. We however always welcome ideas, innovations to our product, people wishing to contribute etc.

Future impact: Ten years from now we will have made the harrowing task of trying to relocate lost family and friends a thing of the past. Or at least a whole lot easier.

Sustainability - resource base: We are 3 full-time employees, 6 volunteers and a board of directors consisting of 6 professionals covering all apects. Up until now, we have been fully funded by my brother and myself, after we identified the problem of locating family when helping a young Afghan man retrace his brother. The story is long, hard and complicated, and I would love to invite you to read our website for full detail. Of course we are in dire need of funding, and we will receive such soon. We have just launched a t shirt sale where a Danish design duo did a refugee shirt, which we sold out in 3 days, giving us a little boost. We have done a lot of interviews in newspapers, talkshows etc. and are spreading the word through this. We have our nations biggest celebrity, Mads Mikkelsen, as Goodwill Ambassador and are securing an American actor and actress right now before our International luaunch. Our hope is to create a self-sustained situation in the next 5 years.

Major challenge for the field: To get the information out to the right people: the refugees, the people in the field, the myriad of organizations bettering the lives of those in need. To have people link to us, blog about us and to improve the site itself, making it better and better, easier and easier to use.

Contact Information:

Name: Christopher Mikkelsen
Mailing address: Refugees United Org. , Amaliegade 40, 1256 Kbh K
Country: Denmark
Email: cm@refunite.org
Tel: +4570204181
Fax: +4539634855
Website: www.refunite.org

Bio: Refugees United was founded by my brother David and I. We came into Refugees United through our 'other' work as writers, documentary film makers and musicians. We have travelled the globe extensively through the last 12 years, and have called many countries home. Born in 1978, I, Christopher, am the father of a wonderful 5 year-old girl who gives me continuing energy to fight for a better world. Likewise, she certainly kick-starts her uncle too. I have written 2 books, 'The Land of 10.000 Places', which describes an underworld beneath NYC that has spent a 100 years infiltrating the corridors of power in the city's world of influence, awaiting the right time to re-emerge and take over the political scene. I usually refer to it as a book of political love, showing how we may act to secure a better world. The second book is called 'Life Becoming' and is a children's book unraveling the fabrics of understanding to create an abstract journey through love, hate, hope and fear. I record music under the name 'The Twilight Conspiracy' and have released two albums. The music is haunting soundscapes infused with cinematic twists. David is a creative film maker, having recently completed a documentary for the Danish government on integration and what it means to arrive in Denmark from a foreign country. He is currently deeply involved with the documentary about our struggle to re-unite the two Afghan brothers: A struggle that took us from Copenhagen to Pakistan, to Moscow and Stavropol. Now, the struggle lies in the Danish system, where we are fighting to have the brothers formally and legally reunited.