Kjerstin Erickson
Founder and Executive Director, FORGE
Kjerstin Erickson, Founder and Executive Director of FORGE, discusses how her organization is using social media to their advantage, but is more interested in how new media technologies are providing the refugees they support with a platform to share their voice.
As the Founder and Executive Director of FORGE, an international NGO that supports social entrepreneurship among impoverished refugee communities in Africa, I’ve been blogging for more than 2 years now. Rather than use my blog as a simple platform to promote FORGE’s work, I’ve tried to use my voice to discuss the issues and difficulties of the sector, the inspiration that gets us by, and the tough choices we face day-to-day. The approach has garnered FORGE and me significant attention, including being named “The Most Important Nonprofit Blog” by Tactical Philanthropy.
And yet, FORGE’s cause is not about me – it’s about the refugees who we serve. I’m sick of having to be the face of the organization simply because our constituents lack access to the electricity, cell phone networks, and internet connections that allow voices to be heard in this day and age. We want our donors and staff and supporters to hear about FORGE from the mouths of the only people who know the true quality of our work – the tens of thousands of African refugees that we’ve been serving for the past 5 years. And yet, as the web and social media become more and more pervasive, the voices of those without access to the fundamental tools are becoming more and more marginalized.
FORGE wants to change this. And through a new technology being pioneered to great success on the web, we think we’ve found a way.
FORGE wants to use the Social Media Leadership Award to allow refugees who’ve been affected by FORGE’s work to speak directly to the more than ten thousand people who visit our website each month. Using a brilliant new technology that enables video web spokespeople to guide a user through a website, FORGE’s refugee staff and program beneficiaries who otherwise lack access to internet and technology could find their voice and tell their stories across the world.
By allowing African refugees to be video spokespersons throughout our website, we would not only be pioneering an emerging new technology for social good, but we’d be exponentially enhancing the understanding and engagement between Western supporters and African beneficiaries. Connecting constituents, despite the physical distance separating them, will contribute to not just FORGE’s outreach and fundraising, but to taking social media to the next level – beyond the bounds of access and connectivity.
A bit more on FORGE:
Believing in the power of the world’s poor to best shape their futures, FORGE works with war-torn African communities to rebuild their lives, stabilize their market systems, and reconstruct the social and economic bonds that create the conditions for lasting peace and prosperity.
An official Operating Partner of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), FORGE works hand-in-hand with refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan. Now in its sixth year of operation, FORGE has implemented over 60 community development projects that have served more than 60,000 refugees in the four sites in Southern Africa FORGE has worked: Meheba, Mwange, and Kala refugee camps in Zambia, and Dukwi refugee camp in Botswana. FORGE projects and programs are run by a staff of 150 refugees.
FORGE and Social Media:
FORGE’s staff are well-versed in a range of social media methods and forums. In addition the the rich multi-media functionality of our website, FORGE’s staff regularly use Twitter, Facebook, Causes and other forums to connect with supporters, partners, and the general public. FORGE Founder and Executive Director Kjerstin Erickson has been a regular blogger since 2007 on Social Edge, a program of the Skoll Foundation. FORGE’s “Radical Transparency” efforts garnered widespread attention from social entrepreneurship experts, philanthropic consultants, nonprofit development staff, and national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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