App developers get chance to unite refugee families

Refugees at the Daadab camp in Kenya. Kenya mobile application developers have been given an opportunity to unite refugee families separated due to conflict, war and disaster May 21, 2013. FILE

What you need to know:

  • Initiative is a partnership between Ericsson and Refugees United to find new ways of reconnecting refugees with their family members.
  • The competition will be held on three weekends ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20.

Kenya mobile application developers have been given an opportunity to unite refugee families separated due to conflict, war and disaster.

On June 15 -16, Ericsson will pitch tent in Nairobi to introduce a unique series of “hackathons” competition – a weekend-long marathon of developing applications on mobile networks.

Developers will create apps accessible from low-cost mobile phones, change interfaces or modify the built-in messaging application that allows refugees to exchanges messages without additional costs.

The initiative is a partnership between Ericsson and Refugees United to find new ways of reconnecting refugees with their family members in some of the most remote areas in the world. There are 43 million forcibly displaced people globally.

“Everyone has the right to know where their family is. To separated refugee families, this for many years seemed impossible. Today, we're at a tipping point where technology can help them reconnect. Now it's up to us to act and help,” said the Refugees United co-founder Christopher Mikkelsen.

The competition, dubbed ‘The Global Hack for Good’, will galvanise the talent and skill of the developer community toward a solution for separated families.

The competition will be held on three weekends, but working toward the same goal of making re-connection easier ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20.

The first hackathon will be in Cairo, Egypt, on May 31-June 1. Then, a new batch of developers will gather in San Francisco, USA, on June 7-8 and the third part in Nairobi.

Already over 200,000 refugees have registered on the service, and the aim is to reach 1 million by the end of 2015.

"Increasingly we see developers wanting to apply their skills for a good cause - this is a true example of Technology for Good, and we hope to see the world’s most talented developers create new ideas to serve more separated families,” said Ericsson’s Elaine Weidman-Grunewald.

The jury, including experts from both Ericsson and Refugees United, will select two finalists at each location.

On World Refugee Day, a winner from each location will be announced. The three winners will get a trip to Kenya and will be invited to test their prototypes in the Kakuma refugee camp by the end of the year.