Last year, RefugePoint leadership announced a groundbreaking new program for refugees called the Family Reunification Initiative. The promise: over the next five years, RefugePoint will serve as a partner and a thought leader to advance refugee family reunification, contributing to one million refugees accessing family reunification pathways in that time.
One year later, what progress has been made?
We have hired three new team members focused on family reunification, increasing our capacity in Kenya and worldwide.
We launched our Family Reunification Navigation Assistance Program in Kenya. Through that program, we have begun screening and counseling refugees in Kenya seeking family reunification and have provided casework support to help them with the next steps of their cases.
Through our role as the Secretariat of the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN) we are prioritizing the inclusion of new members from refugee-led organizations.
Together with UNHCR, States, legal service providers, and other NGOs, we provided leadership in the lead-up to the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, which resulted in 47 pledges toward the Multistakeholder Pledge to Support Refugee Family Reunification—compared to just 8 pledges on family reunification made at the 2019 GRF.