REFUGEE PROTECTION INTERNATIONAL, INC

Refugee Protection International offers an effective locally-led model of humanitarian aid. We are light on overhead, strong on programming design, and supportive of local relief capacity.

We work with our refugee-led/grassroots implementing partners to identify protection and self-reliance gaps facing the most vulnerable refugees and internally displaced persons in Ukraine, the Middle East, and beyond. We co-design, oversee, and support projects in education, health care, housing, protection, and self-reliance.

RPI staff and volunteers do cross-border relief deliveries to hospitals, shelters, orphans, and NGOs in war zones and bring crafts made by displaced women who have gone through an RPI-funded & partner-led livelihood training to the US market to support women's self-reliance, as well as education and relief aid for their children.

We equip our community-based partners with technical assistance, project grants, and support with sourcing and packing humanitarian/medical equipment and supplies.

RPI pursues a three-pronged approach to humanitarian aid for refugees and IDPs: 1) empowering refugee-led/grassroots partners; 2) applying a rights-based approach to aid; and 3) tailoring and targeting aid for IDPs and urban refugees.

1) Empowering refugee-led/grassroots partners

In support of local relief capacity and equitable aid, we partner with humanitarian nonprofits, hospitals and shelters led by the communities we serve. We jointly identify the most pressing needs, co-design humanitarian interventions, mentor reporting and do cross-border aid trips. Highly conscious of cost and local context, our implementing partners have unparalleled access to persons in need. When international agencies depart, we hope that our partners will stay and persist.

We vet, select and promote the visibility of community-based NGOs, hospitals and shelters that are efficient, transparent, neutral, impartial and impactful. Our partners addressing the Syrian displacement crisis in the Middle East are registered as public charities in Turkey and Lebanon. In addition to requiring project reporting, we conduct on-site monitoring of projects when security permits and retain the right to engage third-party monitoring consultants if needed. We have most recently partnered with these NGOs: Happy Child Charitable Foundation, The Way Home Odessa Charity Fund, Bright Kids Charity, Multi Aid Programs, Kids Paradise, Olive Branch, Innovative and Powerful Vision and the Humanitarian Initiative Association.

2) Applying a rights-based approach to aid

In contrast to handouts alone, a rights-based approach supports aid sustainability, self-reliance, and targeting of the most vulnerable. Through stakeholder analysis and identification of the most vulnerable, we collaborate with our grassroots partners to strengthen community-based protection in refugee and IDP communities. We also advise our partner organizations to assist rights-holders in accessing the documentation needed to enjoy their rights to basic education, health care, and protection from unlawful eviction, among other matters. We support our partners to enhance the capacity (and willingness) of duty-bearers and other stakeholders to safely and effectively deliver the services needed by refugees and IDPs.

3) Tailoring and targeting aid for IDPs and urban refugees

In contrast to camp residents, urban refugees and IDPs are widely dispersed and less likely to hear about available services. We therefore advise our partners on community outreach to identify the most vulnerable and to facilitate their access to existing urban services. Similarly, we support our partners in improving urban housing conditions and access to affordable rent. In areas of ongoing armed conflict, we support our partners in fortifying and moving critical health care infrastructure underground and in using mobile clinics. To help address brain drain from conflict-affected areas, we support our partners in training local female talent.

RPI's working board members typically have over a decade of experience in humanitarian aid. RPI's founder and executive director has previously worked in Sudan, Haiti, Chechnya/Russia, Kosovo, and Geneva with the UN Migration Agency - IOM and the Danish Refugee Council. RPI's executive director leads cross-border aid trips together with local volunteers. For RPI, she has most recently been in war-damaged southern and southeastern Ukraine and along the Lebanon-Syrian-Turkish border. RPI's refugee-led/grassroots implementing partners are led by qualified professionals and are often registered as local nonprofit, non-governmental charities in frontline countries. Supported hospitals, orphanages, and schools-turned-shelters are typically visited in person by RPI.

To date, overseen projects with our locally-led implementing partners and RPI's direct cross-border aid deliveries have assisted half a million refugees and internally displaced persons in Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. We will continue to respond to the these humanitarian crises, while also expanding our partnerships in support of displaced populations in other areas of the Middle East and beyond.