Letter from Our founder

Defining Moments

To lose everything:

Home

Community

Identity

They were citizens before they were refugees.

This defining moment will forever shape them, but it doesn’t have to be the end of their story.

The Dream Persists

As I spent 2016 in Turkey and Iraq talking with Syrian refugee families, I was humbled by our share wish: to learn, to grow and to be safe. They want economic independence so they can rebuild their homes and support their families. They want a better future for their children. Refugee youth want opportunities to learn so that they can keep up with their education. They want community and friends so they can support one another and feel less alone. They want to reclaim their sense of identity and be seen as an individual — to be more than a refugee. Their desire for agency and autonomy was palpable, so was the frustration of their current situation. 

The Challenges

Educational opportunities in refugee camps are inadequate, often taught by under-qualified teachers. When they do exist, most education initiatives are focused on primary school-age children and we are only starting to focus on early-childhood development.

But what about the teenagers? I kept on asking. They are the most vulnerable to early marriage, exploitation, and radicalization. All the complex teenage feelings bound up with no outlet, guidance or support.

Throughout my conversations with refugee families, I learned that each family had at least one mobile phone and they are active on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp but nothing else. Most of them do not have an email account nor do they know how to perform a Google search.

They are unfamiliar with the basic productivity tools that can help them create a better future or remote learning platforms that can supplement their education. While UNHCR’s “Connecting Refugees” report estimates refugees spend upwards of 20% of their limited resources on connectivity, they experience the Internet as observers and not creators.

Modern work is built around email communications, productivity tools and collaborative work. Remote work, a growing worldwide trend, relies even more on these skills. But the majority of refugee youth have never been exposed to these fundamental tools. Mastering these basic digital tools can mean the difference between inconsistent manual labor and an entry-level office job that could make moving out of refugee camps a reality. 

This is what inspired me to start Hello Future.

By sourcing the best and most creative solutions in education, entrepreneurship, and psychosocial support, we teach our students hard and soft skills that restore their sense of agency, motivation, and hope. By teaching them digital literacy, they now learn English through Duolingo; by teaching them Design Thinking, they feel empowered to take on the challenges of their community. 

Our innovation is not in the content, as we stand on the shoulder of giants who paved the way, rather in how we’ve selected and stacked one creative solution with another and implemented for those who are most underserved.

We’ve designed our program in 4-6-8 & 12 week-long modules to flex with our student and partner organization’s needs. We’ve intentionally created a program that context agnostic and scalable so we may work with as many partner organizations as possible and reach as many youths as quickly as we can.

We may never fully understand the refugee experience but all of us can understand how it feels to be alone, forgotten and stuck. Join us and let’s transform the refugee experience. 

Charlie Grosso
Executive Director, Hello Future