Christopher L. Sparks

"Not Just A Number" has grown out of the "Refugee Project Maastricht", a combined initiative of the InnBetween and SSI, two organizations directly linked to the University of Maastricht. There are almost 60 million refugees world wide today, and much more who are still in the vacuum of long and complicated bureaucratic procedures. They are more than Just A Number, a name, an ethnicity or a religion. Their struggle to find a common identity in places they have often never heard of, far from their homes, uprooted from their values is a quest we feel responsable to endeavour. Not Just A Number stands for the "re"humanization of refugees in the European context, by linking civil society and other stakeholders to those seeking aslyum to build a whole, new and sustainable life. Our approach is focusod on a much more personalized and individualized system in response to the inefficiencies of top-down integrational efforts en masse failing to recognize peoples socio-cultural background and ways of interaction. Our mantra therefore, in order to build a bridge, we need both sides on a foundation of trust and human dignity. For more updates follow us on Twitter and Instagram @NotJustANr / @NJAN_NotJustANr

"Not Just A Number" has grown out of the "Refugee Project Maastricht", a combined initiative of the InnBetween and SSI, two organizations directly linked to the University of Maastricht. There are almost 60 million refugees world wide today, and much more who are still in the vacuum of long and complicated bureaucratic procedures. They are more than Just A Number, a name, an ethnicity or a religion. Their struggle to find a common identity in places they have often never heard of, far from their homes, uprooted from their values is a quest we feel responsable to endeavour. Not Just A Number stands for the "re"humanization of refugees in the European context, by linking civil society and other stakeholders to those seeking aslyum to build a whole, new and sustainable life. Our approach is focusod on a much more personalized and individualized system in response to the inefficiencies of top-down integrational efforts en masse failing to recognize peoples socio-cultural background and ways of interaction. Our mantra therefore, in order to build a bridge, we need both sides on a foundation of trust and human dignity. For more updates follow us on Twitter and Instagram @NotJustANr / @NJAN_NotJustANr