DESIGNING & ENABLING TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS TO REFUGEE NEEDS
The current refugee crisis differs from every mass migration before it, not just in size and scope — almost 3 million refugees are located in Turkey so far — but because these travelers are so connected. Vast numbers of them own smartphones (even if they don’t have a passport); connectivity and personalized solutions become as vital as food and water.
Techfugees is a social enterprise coordinating the international tech community’s response to the needs of Refugees. Moved by the plight of refugees in Europe, a number of technology industry people have formed a voluntary team to create the series of non-profit “Techfugees” conferences, hackathons, and work with a global network of collaborators working around the world and recently in Turkey, with 5 main goals (T5); Infrastructure, Education, Identity, Health and Inclusion.
And we are inviting you to become a part of the solution now, apply on this e-mail list to become a tech volunteer or join the movement as an NGO.
Our events are entirely non-profit, designed to bring together tech engineers, entrepreneurs and startups together with NGOs and other agencies in order to address the crisis in ways where the technology world can bring its considerable firepower.
Established for that purpose, ‘Basefugees’ is a Techfugees web-based, open source platform showcasing 1)technology solutions that meet the needs of refugees, and 2) challenges faced by NGOs, with the aim of matching solutions to challenges and companies to NGOs. Basefugees’ mission is to enable the best and most innovative technology solutions to be mapped to real-world problems faced by refugees and/or NGOs working with refugees, with the aim of creating an efficient and transparent “global humanitarian response” process, ultimately raising living standards and saving lives.
Techfugees is established by Mike Butcher, ‘Editor At Large’ at TechCrunch. Turkey chapter founders are; Niels van der Linden (Patica), Canay Atalay (Patica), Mujde Esin (Kizcode) with supporting partners; Ashoka Turkey, the Borderless Hack teams (Kaan Akin from Hackquarters, Kolektif House and Istanbul&I) and 500 Startups. Other supporters are Impact Hub Istanbul and the US Department of State who help us organize the World Refugee Day Iftar on June 20th, 2016 in Istanbul.
International Media Contact: https://techfugees.com/press/
Turkey Media Contact: canay@patica.co & niels@patica.co
