10 h, sep 23, 2019 y - Amber Heard Together Band Shadows In The Dark Event Speaker United Nations NYC

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Why Dr. Mariana Dahan And Amber Heard Want To Bring Identity To The World's Most Vulnerable

by Melissa Jun Rowley

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, 70% of refugees lack basic identification. When people are forced into displacement, they often leave behind important documentation, such as birth certificates, marriage licences, passports and ID cards. This is where blockchain technology can be useful. In the Zaataari Refugee Camp in Jordan, the first refugee camp that Amber visited and the first I’ve been to myself, the refugees are able to purchase food at a camp grocery store without the middle man—banks—being involved.

Mariana and the team at WIN are using blockchain on top of existing systems to ensure that no child is taken out of the country using fake ID documents that are produced by human traffickers. The blockchain's ability to permanently record a transaction, such as an attempted unauthorized exit at a border, can be used to prevent someone from bribing their way out of the country.

WIN is also working with children from orphanages because Mariana says, "Many children in the orphanage systems are being lost forever. We can't even find their identity papers. They vanish; going from one institution to another. They become extremely vulnerable to smugglers and human traffickers, who are snatching children for modern slavery or human organs trade."

Additionally, WIN is collaborating with local authorities to help children find their way back to their families, and in the process helping them get ID papers. The organization is also using funds to support those families through buying them homes.

The issues of refugees without identity, human trafficking, and lost orphans are bigger than the stigmas attached to their current stories.

“We’re talking about a human issue, a global issue, and I think it’s one that’s going to be increasingly important,” says Amber. “We need to stop looking at this as a political issue, and burying our heads in the sand, and claiming that if we just build a barricade or a big enough wall it’s going to go away.”

Mariana hopes that women activists like Amber will bring more attention to marginalized people everywhere—people who are still in the dark silently suffering in the shadows.

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