WEHAV
Why WEHAV
WEHAV was born from legacy — but it is built for the present. Our work grows out of lived experience with displacement, resilience, and care, shaped by histories that span conflict, migration, and survival.
Today, WEHAV responds to a world where climate disruption is no longer episodic, but structural. From the Gulf Coast to the Caribbean and beyond, communities are navigating rising heat, water, and uncertainty with limited support and fewer choices. WEHAV exists to help change that reality — not through reaction alone, but through foresight, design, and preparation.
Who We Are...
WEHAV is a global nonprofit focused on research, design, and innovation at the frontlines of climate disruption. We work with communities affected by displacement to generate evidence-based strategies, tools, and frameworks that support safe mobility, resilience, and long-term stability.
Our work is grounded in lived experience, informed by scholarship, and guided by a belief that dignity and choice are essential to climate resilience.
What We Do...
Educate
We produce research, white papers, maps, and public-facing materials that make climate migration legible, human, and actionable. Our work helps communities, institutions, and policymakers understand displacement as a condition that must be planned for — not punished or ignored.
Respond
Through early-stage and emerging innovations in evacuation planning and decision-support systems, we explore ways to connect people to resources, information, and safer options — in real time and in culturally relevant ways.
Design
We develop and test design interventions, housing peripherals, and climate-adaptation concepts that improve safety and habitability without requiring large-scale redevelopment. Our focus is on affordability, scalability, and dignity — designing with communities, not for them.
WEHAV Origin Story
WEHAV’s story begins not with a building, but with a commitment to presence.
In the late 1970s, in post-colonial Liberia, our founder’s father, Dr. James K. Holder Sr. — known affectionately as Big Jim — opened an auto parts shop called “We Have.” In a place where supply chains were fragile and resources scarce, the name was a promise: if something was needed, he would find a way.
That commitment expanded beyond commerce. As Liberia’s political and social conditions deteriorated, Big Jim shifted from industrialist to humanitarian, founding an organization that provided food, shelter, and dignity to civilians displaced by violence. To him, protection was never transactional — it was a responsibility.
Today, WEHAV carries that legacy forward in a different context. We no longer respond primarily to civil unrest; we respond to climate disruption. But the principles remain the same: presence, protection, and preparedness.
