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An Oral History Archive of Real Time Displacement
We’re building the world’s largest oral history archive of female-headed households (FHH) and a global hub for FHH-focused thought, research, and collaboration. As a hub, we also host podcasts, webinars, events, design targeted educational opportunities, and connect oral historians, practitioners, researchers, and advocates.
The Process
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Partner Training
Each training program is part of a country portfolio, reflecting locally led work shaped by that setting.
We design custom education and training for each partner based on local geography, language, culture, and oral history experience. Programs cover core methods such as research ethics and informed consent, trauma-aware interviewing, open-ended questioning and listening, cross-language work and translation, and basic documentation and archiving.
These programs prepare partners to interview displaced single mothers and female-headed households who choose to participate. We also support partners with the technology and training needed for digital data collection, secure storage, safety protocols, encryption, data management, and responsible sharing. Throughout the Story to Action Lab, our team provides regular mentorship.
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Partner
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Archive
We partner with {University partner to be announced} to preserve the full, unedited record of our work, including audio, video, transcripts, images, and other media shared by interviewees.
This partnership gives The Refugee Archive secure, long-term storage on university-managed systems that follow international standards for ethics, privacy, and digital preservation.
The archive is housed within the university’s library and research systems, where materials are catalogued, tagged, and maintained by archivists.
This partnership protects the stories of displaced single mothers and female-headed households for future generations while making organized collections available to those working to improve policy and programs.
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Publish & Advocate
The Refugee Archive curates and shares oral histories from across Substack, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
We publish full interviews, short clips, blog posts, and analytical summaries that connect these stories to current policy and humanitarian contexts.
For selected interview series, we produce qualitative reports and visuals, including sentiment analysis, to help partners and stakeholders draw insights, adjust programs, and respond in real time to the needs of displaced single mothers and female-headed households.
We also launched Refugee Voices on Substack, a space where some of the single mothers and female-headed households we work with can publish blog posts, share images, and record audio explaining a concept, memory, or tradition in their own words.
We partner with local organizations and community leaders in communities hosting refugees and internally displaced persons affected by war, conflict, and disaster.
Together, we create inclusive programs that give single mothers and female-headed households space to share their stories, preserve memories, and be heard.
Our work challenges harmful stigma around mothers raising children outside patriarchal households and highlights the leadership and value they bring to community life.
We also support global advocacy so these communities are not forgotten, helping improve policy, programming, procurement, security, and support in ways displaced female heads of household can actually access and use as they shape the next generation.
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Evidence & Learning
We design qualitative research and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) projects that draw on our oral histories and new fieldwork to inform international organizations, governments, and local stakeholders.
This work includes thematic studies, rapid listening exercises, and learning briefs that identify patterns across interviews and settings.
We turn what displaced single mothers are saying into clear findings, recommendations, and tools that can shape policy, programs, procurement, and funding.
Our interviews and research also inform The Refugee Archive’s FHH Policy Tracking Program and are used to support education and microfinance programming.
Displacement and Conflict Snapshot
Latest figures available in 2026
