Our Impact Recognized
Our humanitarian efforts began with SAFAR, a student-led grassroots initiative at USC that provided refugees in Greece with critical support through a mobile app. As our capacity to create impact shifted, so did our focus—eventually evolving into Beyond Displacement, with a renewed commitment to working directly with displaced people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Along the way, our efforts have been recognized by former U.S. President Obama and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. We also won the USC Viterbi School of Engineering ABC Innovation Prize, and our work was featured in the local Emmy-winning documentary, "Lives Not Grades."
Early days
Beyond Displacement’s roots trace back to SAFAR, a project launched by USC students to help refugees in Greece find access to essential resources.
SAFAR’s first effort was a mobile app piloted in Lesbos, offering localized support to newly arrived refugees. The name SAFAR (سفر) means “journey” in both Farsi and Arabic, capturing the spirit of movement, resilience, and hope that has guided our work from the start.
Focus on Afghanistan & Pakistan
In 2021, as Afghanistan fell back into the hands of the Taliban, we turned our focus to organizing and managing the evacuation of hundreds of at-risk Afghans by coordinating efforts between Afghan leaders, other NGOs, and U.S. officials.
Fast forward, our efforts are now hyper-focused on providing access to educational resources to refugee children, primarily girls, and providing refugee families access to critical resources through our partnership with local schools, hospitals, and grassroots organizations.