We send free
phone credit to refugees
with disabilities.
17.6 million refugees worldwide have a disability. Aid agencies identify about 1%. We just make sure they can call for help. AI screens applications, top-up APIs deliver credit direct to a phone — and the rest of the aid sector (doctors, NGOs, UNHCR, family) answers when the phone rings. Disruptive in mechanism. Collaborative in mission.
WRC 2024
HI field studies 2022
CFH operational metric
We enable refugees with disabilities to call for help.
Mobile credit lands on a refugee’s phone in seconds. From there they can call a doctor, a family member, an employer, an NGO, an evacuation service, an interpreter — whoever’s on the other end of the line. The traditional aid sector takes those calls. We just make sure they can call for help at all.
The disruption is in our model, not our mission. Direct-to-individual delivery via top-up APIs. AI-screened applications. One founder running operations from a laptop. No warehouses, no field staff, no logistics chain. Refugees with disabilities are the population traditional aid struggles to reach — about 1% of an estimated 17.6 million. We work in the digital corner of the same sector, closing the connection gap so the rest can do its job.
Four steps. Zero offices.
We’re a digital-only project. No warehouse, no fieldwork, no salaried staff. The same AI tools that move billions in tech run our operations end-to-end — and the only human in the loop is the founder approving payouts. Here’s how it works.
AI does the work people used to.
Application review. Translation across 50+ languages. Document parsing. Sanctions cross-checks. Fraud signal scoring. Operational reporting. AI agents handle all of it — the same tools earning tech companies billions, repurposed for humanitarian aid. One founder. No call centre. No salaried staff in the middle.
Verified in seconds, not weeks.
Every application runs through Didit (iBeta Level 1 certified, ISO 27001) — under 3 seconds for liveness detection that catches deepfakes, masks, screen injection, and replay attacks. Document verification across 14,000+ document types in 220+ countries. Sanctions screening against UK / UN / EU lists. Washington Group disability questions for eligibility. The whole pipeline is automated; a human only steps in to give final approval.
Credit lands at internet speed.
We send mobile credit through ding’s top-up infrastructure — 850+ operators across 180+ countries. The credit lands on the recipient’s phone in seconds, anywhere there’s signal. No truck, no warehouse, no field office to coordinate. Just an HTTPS request and a confirmation receipt.
A phone with credit opens every other door.
With credit on a phone, a refugee with a disability can call a doctor, an NGO, family, an employer, an evacuation service, an interpreter, a banking line, a translation app, a community group. The mobile network becomes the bridge to the rest of humanitarian aid, healthcare, work, and safety. Digital aid that unlocks every other kind of aid.
A smartphone is more important than a wheelchair.
Because with a smartphone, you can call the agency that has the wheelchair. The hospital with the spare parts. The translator who knows your language. The family that can wire you a fare. Without a phone, none of it reaches you — even when the help is right there. Digital humanitarian aid closes the connection gap so the rest of the aid sector can do its job.
2–4× higher death rate.
In disasters, people with disabilities die at 2–4× the rate of the general population. Only 20% can evacuate immediately when warned. A phone that works is the difference between hearing the warning and not hearing it at all.
UN DESA · UN DRR 2024
42% missed by food aid.
In Uganda’s refugee camps, 42% of households with children with disabilities were excluded from food aid by an automated categorisation system. They weren’t on a list because the form didn’t ask the right question. A phone is how you call to ask what happened.
Humanity & Inclusion Uganda 2025
No warehouse, no chain.
Traditional aid needs trucks, drivers, depots, and field offices to deliver. We need an HTTPS request. That’s not a slight on the agencies that DO run the logistics — it’s why we can complement them: digital aid that costs almost nothing per beneficiary scales to people they can’t physically reach.
CFH OPERATIONAL MODEL
Things people ask.
Why are phones more important than wheelchairs or prosthetics?
A phone with credit is the most useful single piece of disability aid we can give someone, because it provides access to every other form of help. Agencies with wheelchairs, prosthetics, medical care, food parcels and safe accommodation already exist, often free at the point of delivery — but a refugee with a disability who can’t physically reach them can’t be reached by them either. A phone with credit closes that gap. It’s digital equality: it puts a refugee with a disability on the same terms as anyone else trying to use the aid system.
Why is digital-only the right model for this work?
Because the people we serve are disconnected, not unfindable. Around 30% of forcibly displaced people have a disability and roughly 99% are missed by traditional aid registration — disability isn’t a column on most aid databases. Digital infrastructure (mobile networks, top-up APIs, AI screening) reaches them where physical infrastructure can’t.
How does AI screening work — and what stops fraud?
Every application runs through Didit (iBeta Level 1 certified, ISO 27001) — identity verification across 14,000+ document types, plus liveness detection that catches deepfakes, masks, and replay attacks in under 3 seconds. Then sanctions screening against UK / UN / EU lists. Then Washington Group disability questions. AI handles the whole pipeline — but the final approval before any credit is sent is always done by a human.
Aren’t you just replicating what existing aid agencies do?
No — we sit alongside them, not in their lane. UNHCR runs camps and registration. UNICEF runs nutrition. WFP runs food distribution. NGOs run clinics and shelters. They’re the ones who answer the call. We’re the ones who make sure they can call for help. We’re a digital connector, not a competitor.
Are you a registered charity?
We’ve applied for Scottish charity registration and are currently running a pilot programme with a limited number of places while we test viability and impact.
Can I apply on someone else’s behalf?
Yes — applications can be submitted by the person themselves or by a carer or support worker acting on their behalf, in both cases through the form at callingforhelp.org/apply (English and Arabic, around ten minutes via Didit). The person who would receive the credit must be 18 or over and able to provide valid ID at the verification step. Credit lands directly on the beneficiary’s phone — we don’t pay partner organisations — and we process one application per beneficiary at a time, so please submit one form per person rather than a batch.
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