Supporting the health and wellbeing of refugees at home and abroad

In refugee settings in Chad and Uganda, we team up with Stichting Vluchteling and the International Rescue Committee to aid the detection of childhood pneumonia as part of their Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) approach. In these environment, ICCM is often delivered by low-literate Community Health Workers, and the aim of the project is to assess whether the use of children's automatic respiratory monitor can be of added value in accurate breath rate counting, which is an indicator for pneumonia.

Together we learn

Refugees are one of the most psychologically vulnerable groups. An average refugee has survived more than six highly traumatic events in the country of origin or on the route from the country of origin. This contributes to several times higher prevalence of different.

In the Netherlands alone, thousands of undocumented people are deprived of access to essential healthcare needs. That is why Philips Foundation supported the Netherlands Red Cross with developing a digital tool to help determine undocumented people's needs in the Netherlands and provide these migrants with tailored local information to address these needs, including psychological support. The solution was successfully deployed and tested in Amsterdam and will now be scaled to at least five other Dutch cities.

Together we shine

Refugees, or newcomers, often also experience the struggle of gaining access to the labor market in the countries where they settle. Refugee Company, a foundation in the Netherlands, hires people with a refugee background as part of their affiliated mission to help them integrate into Dutch society through employment and resilience building.

In 2020, Philips Foundation provided a loan to help establish Refugees Company's social enterprise Mondmaskerfabriek in its initial stages. Their journey can be considered a success. Mondmaskerfabriek, which produces high-quality surgical masks in response to the global pandemic, reported that they had already made 17 million certified masks to date. The social enterprise, where nearly 50 people with a refugee background work, is officially contributing to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport's "iron stock." The assignment for the government is in its finishing stage, ending the end of August. Considering the declining need for facemasks, employees of Philips are also voluntarily helping determine and establish a new healthcare related objective for the manufacturing plant.