The Refugee Crisis: What Can Hacks and hACKERS Do To Help?

[Serah Rono]

Hi everyone, 

According to the ASRC, there are an estimated 42.5 million people displaced by persecution and conflict in the world! That is just 2 million less than Kenya's entire population, sad. So, what can we, as Hacks and Hackers,  do to help? 

 

Come to the Hacks/Hackers Nairobi meetup at the Nairobi Garage this Friday, 13th November 2015 from 5pm and hear what our friends at REFUNITE and the Humanitarian Data Exchange are already doing, share your ideas, ask questions and network. Register here and bring a friend.

 

About REFUNITE

Everyone has the right to know where their family is. This belief is at the core of REFUNITE, a non-profit tech organization whose mission is to reconnect separated families throughout the world. To do this, we run a global family tracing platform accessible via a number of touch points, including web, SMS, USSD, and our call center.  We have partnered with a number of technology companies, mobile network operators, humanitarian actors, and nonprofits to "connect the unconnected" - allowing even those considered "off-grid" to get access to family tracing. 

REFUNITE empowers refugees and displaced people to take the search for their family and loved ones into their own hands, capitalizing on the ever-increasing mobile phone usage across the globe. We focus on making our service available on any entry-level mobile phone. The service is free to use and secure, giving the users the option to remain anonymous by only providing the information they feel comfortable and that only their own family would recognize, e.g. birthmarks, favorite foods, or other personal details.

 

About HDX

The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data. The goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Launched in July 2014, HDX has been accessed by users in over 200 countries and territories.