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We turn oral histories into better programs and policy.
Archiving oral histories of single mothers living through conflict-related displacement to inform program and policy changes.
About Us Video
The Refugee Archive is a nonprofit dedicated to displaced single mothers and female-headed households (FHHs), including refugees and internally displaced families. We collect and preserve oral histories and translate those stories into research, education, and country-based Story-to-Action Labs.
Our work helps practitioners, educators, researchers, and policy teams access reliable context and community-led insight to inform programs and decisions. Explore our oral history archive, learn about our country portfolios, and follow our FHH policy and program tracking work.
Each Story-to-Action Lab is a country portfolio. It brings together all of our work in that country – oral histories, education, and research – under a single core model that we adapt to the local geography, law, culture, language, and resources. Our staff and grassroots partners are organized by Lab, so every country has its own focused Story-to-Action Lab team and portfolio.​
Labs are co-run with grassroots partners and local leaders. Our work is grounded in relationships and day-to-day knowledge, not fly-in, fly-out projects.
Explore. Learn.
More at What We Do or listen to our podcasts.
From war zones to resettlement camps, from data to diaries, this podcast brings the archive to life. The Refugee Archive is a nonprofit organization and global center dedicated to preserving and amplifying the voices of refugee women leading households. Featuring refugee women, scholars, and archivists, it champions the power of voice, the preservation of memory, and the stories that shape policy, hearts, and minds.
— The Archive Speaks™
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A curated space highlighting archives, storytelling initiatives, and oral history projects focused on migrants, immigrants, internally displaced individuals, and refugees worldwide. These efforts, like ours, preserve memory, elevate voice, and challenge silence. We'd like to invite you to explore the broader community of narrative-based advocacy and scholarship.
— Across Archives™
Before You Go ...
It's simple. We work with on-the-ground, locally trusted partners in hard-to-reach places around the world where single mothers live in active displacement, speak many languages, practice different religions, and raise the next generation of global citizens as the head of their households. We provide them a platform to share their story and have agency over their voice. They choose to use their stories to support policy, programming, and opportunities that will have a direct, measurable effect. Please, join us!