For the first time in history, a team of ten refugees was going to compete in the 2016 Olympics against every other nation. A borderless team arrived at Rio, with no flag, anthem and identity. Until we made them, The Refugee Nation.

We wanted to give these unsung heroes the identity that they deserved. A symbolic haven to show refugees that we stand with and for them.

We partnered with extraordinary refugees from around the world like Yara Said and Moutaz Arian, to create the first ever flag and anthem representing not only the athletes, but refugees from all around the world. Every refugee is bound to a life vest at some point of their hard journey to finding solace. We used this vest as inspiration to design The Refugee Nation Flag.

The results? Groundbreaking.

The Refugee Nation brought about a long overdue change in conversation about refugees across the globe. For the first time in the Rio Olympics, the world saw a small team of ten refugees make the biggest visual statement by waving The Refugee Flag with pride and march into the arena. Making the flag a powerful symbol of solidarity for the refugee community worldwide.

Till date, The Refugee Nation has generated more than 5 Billion media impression, which is a 150% increase from last year. Yet the cultural impact this project has made is what’s most rewarding to us.

The 2016 Olympics may have ended two years ago, but The Refugee Nation Flag still waves on. The flag was adopted by refugee athletes, communities and their supporters around the world. The flag flies at the most important camps such as Lesbos (Greece), Kakuma (Kenya) and Zaatari (Jordan), Templehof (Germany) and in Bangladesh, which is home to over 600,000 Rohingyan refugees.

The flag has been used by many NGO’s to represent their own activities globally. Students and faculty across the US have waved the flag from coast to coast, representing their openness to welcome refugees. The Refugee Flag was present at the most political Oscars ever, where celebrities wore it on their chest as a badge of honor. It marched with millions of women in Washington, and appeared in the streets of Manhattan to protest President Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies.

Since last year, the flag has also generated job opportunities for refugees arriving in Europe, through a program called Makers Unite. It makes use of abandoned life vests that were worn by refugees, to create mini flags which are sold online and at The Rijksmuseum Museum.

The Refugee Nation flag has also made its way into modern culture and is exhibited at the most popular museums across the globe to more than 20 million visitors. Some of these museums include The MoMA (NYC), V&A Museum (London), National Museum of Arts and History Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and many more hotspots around the world.

What started off as a statement during the 2016 Olympics, has now evolved into a worldwide stand for refugees everywhere.