The Refugee Archive's Country Portfolios
Story to Action Lab
Portfolios dedicated to bridging narrative to policy & programming across multiple displacement contexts.
2026 - STAL Focus
From Stories to Better Programs:
A Core Model
Each Story-to-Action Lab is a country portfolio. It brings together all of our work in that country – oral histories, education, and research – under a single core model that we adapt to the local geography, law, culture, language, and resources.
Our staff and grassroots partners are organized by Lab, so every country has its own focused Story-to-Action Lab team and portfolio. Labs are co-run with grassroots partners and local leaders. Our work is grounded in relationships and day-to-day knowledge, not fly-in, fly-out projects.
Lab Programs
Oral History
Long-form, trauma-informed interviews with single mothers and female-headed households living in active displacement. Each story is recorded, archived, and shared with consent to inform research and policy.
FHH Policy Tracker
A student-led effort tracking how national laws and policies shape daily life for displaced single mothers and female-headed households. Findings highlight where protections exist and where gaps remain.
Art Programs
Youth artists are paired with narrators to translate oral histories into visual work. The pairing gives each story a second life beyond the recording itself.
Education Programs
Training and learning opportunities built around the realities of displacement, from field research skills to program literacy. Content is adapted to each country's language, culture, and context.
Economic Micro-lending Projects
Small-scale lending designed to give displaced mothers a path toward financial independence. Loans are paired with local support so recipients aren't navigating repayment alone.
Histories Recorded
Since Sept. 2025
In-Country Partners
Podcasts
Listen & Read
From The Field
Preserving
History &
Fostering
Programming
Cohesion
Participatory Research &
Field Diagnostics
Country-level, short-cycle research projects that answer real operational questions:
- Why isn't this program reaching women?
- What barriers are actually blocking access?
- What changed after X policy shift?
What lives inside
- Rapid assessments
- Gender diagnostics
- Protection risk mapping
- Access barrier studies
- Community-led research pilots
Active Campaigns
Oral Histories
Preserving narratives of female heads of household living in current displacement settings in fragile places.
FHH Policy Tracker
A student-led policy tracker, examining how national laws shape the lives of displaced single mothers and female-headed households.
Oral History Education
Program
Custom-built, multilingual training program that equips Story-to-Action Lab partners to ethically collect historical and present-day testimonies from single mothers and female heads of household amid ongoing displacement.