5 Things We're Excited About in 2021
Alight is built on the idea that a life is so much more than simply satisfying basic needs—that a meaningful life is also about finding connection, purpose, and joy, even in the most challenging of circumstances. And 2020 was a year of challenges. But as we look ahead to 2021, we remain dedicated to the principles that make us who we are, and that are driving us toward the future. Here are five things getting us closer to keeping our promise to the people we serve—to listen, to do better, and to unleash their abundance.
5 Things We're Excited About in 2021
1
Working Toward Healthcare Access for All
One of Alight’s driving missions is to provide access to quality, compassionate healthcare for everyone we serve. Yet it’s also true that clinics—and physicians—simply cannot be everywhere at once. Enter our partnership with THINKMD. Their mission is to eliminate preventable deaths by combining digital clinical intelligence with mobile technology, aiming to decentralize healthcare and put powerful information directly into the hands of anyone who needs it. We first teamed up with THINKMD in Somalia and Sudan, but when COVID-19 upended the world we ramped up to include screening and diagnostic testing to help contain the virus. There’s still so much more we can do, together. And 2021 will be just the beginning.
5 Things We're Excited About in 2021
2
Shelter Depot: What People Need, When They Need it
In refugee camps around the world, we work with entities like the UN to coordinate the distribution of shelter materials when someone first arrives, giving them the things they need to get things set up and settle in. But then it may be up to refugee families themselves to make any improvements—like a corrugated metal roof to stay dry and protected. These big ticket items can make a huge impact but are prohibitively expensive for most. Our head of Water, Sanitation, and Shelter, Igor Radonjic, has an idea to change all that—Shelter Depot! It’s a sort of mini Home Depot-style store that would be situated in each camp, giving refugees an opportunity to pick out the materials and tools needed to improve and repair their own shelters. AND Shelter Depot would offer long-term financing options, putting change within reach of families.
5 Things We're Excited about in 2021
3
A Little Piece of Home on the U.S-Mexico Border
Families fleeing to the U.S./Mexico border have already come a long way, but they still have so much further to go. Sometimes they wait for days or months for their next steps. And due to COVID-19, people and the process are at a standstill. Now, alongside incredible partners at the border, Alight is working to create three new places of welcome for migrant families—sanctuaries of radical hospitality that serve the whole person. Through providing a range of human-worthy services, much-needed COVID-19 support, and building bridges between migrants and the neighbors who host them, these places of welcome will create a little piece of home, of belonging, during the long journey to a better future.
5 Things We're Excited about in 2021
4
Rethinking What it Means to Welcome
In Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda, we’re bringing some of our most inspirational friends together to update the camp’s Reception Center—the place where a person first arrives to the camp after a long journey. It should be the settlement’s most welcoming space. But instead, it’s one of the most difficult. So we’re working with the Nakivale community to reimagine it. We believe that the way a space looks, feels, and is designed can go a long way in making someone feel seen, feel cared for, feel human. Welcoming thousands of newly arrived refugees each year, we imagine the newly designed Reception Center to be filled with light and with hope as these families grapple with what they’ve been through and life in a new place. It begins with the Reception Center, and it continues with thoughtful placemaking throughout Nakivale.
5 Things We're Excited About in 2021
5
Evolving Rapid Response
40 years ago we were founded to do whatever we could for people in great need. And during this pandemic, we’ve been able to reach many more people—particularly those on the margins of society—because we held true to our core value of Finding Others. We found other actors on-the-ground, and through community based organizations and Catholic Sisters, we reached millions more people than we otherwise would have with information about the disease. We got resources and essentials to people in greatest need, helping them survive the pandemic. Now, our teams are standing vigilant across the globe. People’s needs may change, but we’ll be there to respond, right alongside them.