Over 25 million refugees worldwide have been forced to leave their homes, families, and communities to seek safety. But one thing they can bring with them from home is their cell phone.
Phone Credits for Refugees is a British non-profit that ensures they can use them to contact their families and access essential services.
JAMES PEARCE
Founder, Phone Credits for Refugees
'Refugees who have a mobile phone-that is the one possession that they can carry from their home'.
When they go on the road or are travelling on boats or lorries or wherever they need GPS to be able to travel, when they arrive at a country they need credit to be able to register their asylum claim with the UNHCR which is all done remotely using mobile phones.
Phone credit is an essential tool for refugees to staye safe and connected in unfamiliar areas. One migrant even used their phone credit to find their daughter.
JAMES PEARCE
Founder, Phone Credits for Refugees
'That particular service user became cut off and disconnected from their young child. They were travelling with a young daughter, and their young daughter ended up being taken by another family and travelling further north into Europe, and they were completely cut off and had no way to trace their child, and so they then relied on our phone credit to stay in touch with the agencies which ultimately led to them being reunited with their daughter some months later”.
POPE FRANCIS
'Every human being yearns for a better and happier life. The challenge of migration cannot be solved with the logic of violence and discarding people, nor with partial solutions.'
Pope Francis has made care for refugees a focus of his papacy, asking the global community to view displaced people around the world with compassion.
JAMES PEARCE
Founder, Phone Credits for Refugees
'It’s not an inconvenience that these people are here or that this crisis is happening. We should all be responding to this and we should all see these people as neighbors because if you spend any time with them you’ll quickly learn that they are'.
Refugees who have received phone credits have expressed their thanks for the service by sending videos of gratitude from all corners of the globe. A reminder of Phone Credits for Refugee's motto: “We Are All Connected.”
Justin McLellan
