How did Miles4Migrants start?

It began with co-founder Nick Ruiz, who used his American Airlines miles to help a friend reunite with his family, realizing that donated miles could solve a significant financial barrier for refugees.

What is the scale of Miles4Migrants' impact?

From October 2016 to April 2023, Miles4Migrants has flown over 41,000 people from 97 countries and reunited over 50,000 people across 25 countries, alleviating over $12 million in flight costs.

What is the core principle behind Miles4Migrants’ success?

The organization's success is rooted in the principle of participation, which involves collaboration, utilizing available resources innovatively, and empowering communities. This aligns with Nabeel Hamdi's concept of participatory action planning.

How does Miles4Migrants define participation?

Participation is defined as taking responsibility with authority and in partnership with other stakeholders in pursuit of common goals. It emphasizes empowerment, ownership, and collaborative action.

What is the difference between Miles4Migrants' planning model and government models?

Miles4Migrants' model starts with local interventions and actions (projects) that act as catalysts, informing larger plans and policies. Government models typically start with policy-making and then implement projects, which can be slower and less adaptive.

How does Miles4Migrants leverage partnerships?

Miles4Migrants relies heavily on partnerships with over 100 non-profit organizations worldwide to identify beneficiaries and understand community needs. They also partner with airlines, governments, and international NGOs.

What role do catalysts play in Miles4Migrants' growth?

Catalysts are significant events like family separations, the Afghanistan crisis, or the war in Ukraine that create opportunities to scale operations, form new partnerships, and reaffirm their expertise.

How does Miles4Migrants achieve sustainability?

Sustainability is achieved by creating a movement that goes beyond just providing aid. It involves empowering the community, fostering ownership, and inspiring ongoing action and belief in the human right to seek refuge.

How can someone be a beneficiary of Miles4Migrants?

Individuals needing flights must connect through one of Miles4Migrants' partner NGOs. Direct applications from individuals are not accepted to ensure proper vetting and community-based support.

How does Miles4Migrants recruit volunteers and donors?

They use social media, targeted campaigns (like the Ukraine program), and engage with corporations to encourage mile donations. They also seek volunteers to act as brand ambassadors.

Miles4Migrants - Migration Summit 2023

MIT OpenCourseWare

Education3 min read88 min video

May 5, 2023|86 views|2

migration displacement livelihoods refugees education workforce development MIT ReACT storytelling migration summit miles4migrants innovation collaboration

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Key Moments

TL;DR

Miles4Migrants uses donated airline miles to fly refugees, focusing on community collaboration and direct action.

Key Insights

Miles4Migrants was founded on the principle of using existing resources (airline miles) to solve a critical transportation barrier for refugees.

The organization emphasizes a participatory action model, which involves collaboration with partners and empowering communities rather than top-down solutions.

Innovation in Miles4Migrants stems from addressing local contexts with available resources, leading to scalable global impact.

Partnerships with over 100 nonprofits are crucial for identifying needs and beneficiaries, while airlines and governments are key stakeholders.

Catalytic events, such as the Afghanistan and Ukraine crises, have significantly expanded Miles4Migrants' reach and impact.

The "PEAS" model (Providing, Enabling, Adapting, Creating Sustainability) guides their approach, prioritizing action and community involvement.

THE ORIGIN OF MILES4MIGRANTS

Miles4Migrants emerged from a personal experience where co-founder Nick Ruiz discovered he could use airline miles to significantly reduce the cost of reuniting a refugee family. This realization highlighted a critical transportation barrier faced by many forcibly displaced individuals. The organization's vision is to create a world where migrants can move towards safety with dignity and hope by removing these barriers, primarily through the donation and redemption of airline miles.

INNOVATION AND COLLABORATION AT ITS CORE

The organization's success is built on innovation and collaboration. Instead of creating new resources, Miles4Migrants leverages existing assets, like airline miles, and fosters a collaborative ecosystem. This approach involves partnerships not only with individuals donating miles but also with airlines, nonprofit organizations on the ground, and governmental bodies. This collaborative network is essential for identifying those in need and facilitating their journeys with dignity.

PARTICIPATORY ACTION AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

Glaydon de Freitas emphasizes a participatory action model, inspired by pioneers like Nabeel Hamdi, which prioritizes community involvement and ownership. This model contrasts with traditional top-down approaches by focusing on recognizing local contexts, mapping assets, and empowering those directly affected. Participation is seen as a way to build resilience, reinforce identity, and ensure the sustainability of efforts by fostering interdependence and shared responsibility within communities.

THE STRATEGIC MODEL FOR ACTION

Miles4Migrants follows a model that prioritizes action and intervention, even before comprehensive planning. This approach, exemplified by Nick's initial flight, involves identifying a problem, acting swiftly with available resources, and then scaling the impact. The process is cyclical, feeding practical interventions back into policy-making and continuously adapting based on real-world experience and available community wealth, rather than relying solely on formal structures.

MILES4MIGRANTS' IMPACT AND OPERATIONAL MODEL

By transforming donated miles into flights, Miles4Migrants has facilitated the movement of over 41,000 people from 97 countries and reunited over 50,000 family members. This has alleviated over $12 million in flight costs for the refugee community. The organization operates through a decentralized model, with a core team managing operations remotely and relying on a vast network of over 100 nonprofit partners to identify beneficiaries and vet flight requests.

SCALING THROUGH CATALYSTS AND PARTNERSHIPS

Significant growth and expanded reach for Miles4Migrants have been driven by catalysts like the family separation crisis, the Afghanistan evacuation, and the war in Ukraine. These events trigger new partnerships and conversations, allowing the organization to amplify its mission. Despite scaling, Miles4Migrants maintains focus on programmatic and institutional constraints, striving to remain a lean, effective organization with clear, impactful results aligned with its core mission.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Software & Apps

●Companies

●Organizations

●Books

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Common Questions

Miles4Migrants is a non-profit organization that uses donated airline miles to book flights for forcibly displaced people, helping them overcome transportation barriers to reach safety and reunite with loved ones. Their vision is a world where forced migrants can move with dignity and hope.

Topics

Refugee Support Non-profit Innovation Participatory Action Airline Miles Forced Displacement Global Initiatives

Mentioned in this video

companyAir France

An airline with an institutional partnership with Miles4Migrants.

personCynthia Visani

Special Assistant at Miles4Migrants, who facilitates group exercises and is learning about the material.

legislationRefugee Convention

A convention established by states recognizing the right to seek refuge and providing legal apparatus for resettlement.

personNabeel Hamdi

A pioneer of participatory planning, influential in the concepts of informal action, community empowerment, and participatory action planning.

softwareJamboard

A collaborative whiteboard tool used for the fishbone diagram exercise.

bookThe Small Change

A 2004 book by Professor Nabeel Hamdi discussing the role of informality in urban life and incremental change.

conceptUkraine program

A specific program by Miles4Migrants that achieved record donations by utilizing targeted campaigns.

personGlaydon de Freitas

Executive Director of Miles4Migrants, discussing the organization's work and methodology.

locationAmazon region

The region in Brazil where Glaydon de Freitas grew up.

conceptPakistani refugees

Refugees fleeing persecution in Pakistan whom Nick Ruiz met in Italy.

organizationIOM

International Organization for Migration, mentioned as a stakeholder in the refugee resettlement process.

companyAmerican Airlines

The airline whose miles were used for the first family flight and whose points are accepted, though not an institutional partner.

companyUnited

An airline with an institutional partnership with Miles4Migrants, whose points can be used for global travel.

personNick Ruiz

Co-founder of Miles4Migrants, who initiated the idea by using airline miles to fly a family.

bookHousing With Houses

A book by Nabeel Hamdi focusing on community action and participation.

toolReact

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