We had an all-day meeting on Friday about Digital Identity, at the United Nations. There are almost two billion people born with no identity.  There is no record of their birth. There is no proof of their existence. As a result, these people can disappear without a trace. There is no evidence of their disappearance because there is no evidence of their existence. Many of those who disappear are girls, sold into sexual slavery. Many others are victims. Victims of war. Victims of politics. Victims of human traffickers. Victims of the inhumanity of humans to humans.

This is the reason why identity is important. So we can find these victims. So we know that they have disappeared. So we can give them hope.

The meeting was full of stories that touched my heart. Stories about refugees in Calais, abducted girls in Nigeria and sex slave trafficking in India  I'm going to start by sharing these stories as it sets the context of the meeting. These stories show the problem of identity, or the lack of one.

Refugees

The refugees story came from Jaz O'Hara, who talked about being frustrated watching the news about people in Calais gathering from overseas, and being talked about as though they were objects rather than humans. To find out the truth, she went to visit the Calais camp and discovered lots of fascinating stories about real humans. The day after she wrote a Facebook update that now has over 65,000 shares. I wanted to repeat all of Jaz's update here, but will just provide you with a little insight:

[We met] a 23-year-old from Dafur, Sudan. He told me that the Gangaweed had come to his village on horseback when he was 18, burnt it to the ground and brutally shot many people, including his dad, just for being black. He was arrested, accused of opposing the government, and put in prison for two years. As soon as he got out, he went back to where the village once was, desperate to find his two little brothers, little sister and mother. He was told his sister was alive and in a nearby town so he went looking for her. She wasn't there. He searched towns and cities until he was again arrested, as travelling through the country is not permitted. Unable to face any more time in prison, he spent all the money he had to be smuggled to Libya. Here he started his journey, on foot and alone to England.

England..where everybody is always smiling and no one has problems, he told me. "Is it this cold in England?", he asked in the middle of a sunny day in August. His expectations, and the reality of his life if he ever does make it to England, make my heart hurt.

He told me he doesn't feel the hunger (the refugees get one free meal a day they have to queue for hours for), or the cold (I cant even begin to imagine winter in this camp), he just feels the pain of his lost family. Each time he spoke the word family, his voice broke and he put his head in his hands. Crying, he told me that every time he closes his eyes, he sees his mother, telling him he is a good boy, and that he is doing the right thing. 'Why then, am I living like an animal?' he asked me.

Jaz decided that leaving these people to live like animals wasn't fair, and so she and her brother set up a new non-profit organisation, the World Wide Tribe, to help all refugees (over £40,000 raised so far but give more here) as well as a charitable fund to actually do something and make a difference for the Calais refugees (over £150,000 raised, but give more here), and I admired the fact that she was actually doing something.

Abduction

Jaz was followed by another emotional presentation about the situation in Nigeria with Boko Haram. Again, we've all heard that this ruthless group took a school of 276 girls as prisoners two years ago – yes, it's over two years now and more than 200 girls are still missing. It's pretty disgusting that this can happen in the 21st century, and so R. Evon Idahosa decided to do something about it by founding Pathfinders Justice Initiative, or PJI for short.