Who We Are
Empowering Displaced Communities
OUR VISION
We envision a world in which peace, co-existence, tolerance, and dialogue replace war and violence, allowing nations to allocate limited resources toward addressing sustainable human security needs and eliminating reasons for displacement.
OUR MISSION
Displaced International (DI) was founded by a displaced person and aims to leverage the lived experiences of former and current refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless persons, and migrants to assist and advocate for individuals affected and displaced by conflict, climate, poverty, lack of opportunity, epidemics, or a combination of these and other challenges worldwide. To achieve this mission, we collaborate with local aid organizations, including those led by displaced people at home and abroad, the donor community, academics, legal experts, and regional stakeholders.
Our Values-Driven Approach
Justice
DI advocates for the equal rights of displaced persons protected under domestic and international laws and seeks to create systemic changes to improve their conditions today and in the long term.
Solidarity
DI promotes empathy, unity, and mutual responsibility among all stakeholders to protect and assist displaced persons throughout their asylum journey until they have been safely resettled and integrated on a sustainable basis.
Inclusivity
DI is committed to ensuring that all displaced individuals, regardless of their background, have access to resources and support. This effort includes promoting freedom of movement, labor mobility, equality of opportunity, and achievement of self-reliance through education and skills development in partnership with public and private schools, colleges, and universities willing to provide scholarships, fellowships, and assistantships for displaced individuals.
Resilience
By fostering resilience, DI strives to provide the displaced with the resources and support they need to overcome challenges and integrate into new environments. This includes access to education, employment opportunities, legal aid, mental health services, and social support networks. When DI empowers displaced persons to harness their resilience, we not only aid their survival but also enable them to contribute positively to their new communities.
Partnership
DI partners with NGOs, governments, the private sector, and local stakeholders to mobilize aid resources and to ensure that aid is used effectively. The latter is achieved by developing local aid design and implementation capacities, ensuring impactful outcomes based on substantive input from local stakeholders, including displaced persons.
Sustainability
DI aims to apply flexible solutions, including simultaneous relief-recovery-development interventions backed by conflict resolution and peacebuilding measures, to address the challenges facing displaced persons today and secure their future for generations to come.
Our Story
Displacement has been a defining thread in the life and career of our founder, Ashraf Haidari. Born into a war-torn Afghanistan, he witnessed his homeland in ruins from the very start. At 16, relentless conflict forced his family to flee their home in Kabul, seeking refuge in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp far from the city.
Determined to shape his own future, Haidari taught himself English and found work with refugee relief organizations, where he discovered the vital role of international cooperation. Despite being largely self-educated, his perseverance earned him a full scholarship to Wabash College in Indiana, followed by graduate studies at Georgetown University.
While in Washington, he began his diplomatic journey in a junior role at the Afghan embassy, launching an 18-year career with the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2018, he was appointed Afghanistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, serving until the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 once again forced him into exile. Now a U.S. citizen, Haidari lives in Washington with his wife and son.
His founding of Displaced International (DI) is both a response to the upheavals of his own life and a commitment to the millions displaced by war and crisis. It stands as a testament to the resilience, ingenuity, and courage that define displaced communities worldwide.
Our Impact
Through our values-driven approach underpinned by our vision and mission, we seek to reach as many displaced people in as many places for assistance as possible. In doing so, we prioritize localization and tangibly shift power to displaced leaders among women, men, youth, people with disabilities, and displaced-led organizations on the ground and in countries of asylum and resettlement.
This should not only ensure aid effectiveness and sustainability but also harness and build the capacity of the displaced, empowering them to apply their own solutions to their own problems, with the material and technical support of Displaced International and its partners.
To achieve this win-win objective, we count on the support of our partners, donors, governments, host communities, and volunteers. Our collective impact is realized when our efforts bring about self-reliance among the displaced whether in their places of origin and initial countries of asylum or following their resettlement and integration into their new societies.
Get Involved
Donate
DI strives to support displaced people by providing education, employment opportunities, legal aid, and mental health services.
Work With us
Help us make a difference by volunteering, donating, or becoming an advocate. Together, we can improve the lives of displaced individuals and their families.