The mission is clear: to help promote solutions to the migration crisis in Europe, supported by technology and innovation. Why not convene programmers, designers, and entrepreneurs who are able to create technological tools that help to solve the refugee crisis? This was the idea of Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch, when it launched the non-profit organization Techfugees in London in 2015, and that today has already reached to the five continents. On November 8th, arrives in Portugal.
Fortunately, in Portugal, still we do not feel the problem of refugees because we don’t have to enter through our coast people coming from Syria or Northern Africa. But the truth is that this is a problem that is very present in the media and is one of the big problems that we have faced in the twenty-first century," says Inês Santos Silva, ambassador of the Techfugees Portugal.
The Global Shapers Lisbon Hub is the entity responsible for bringing the initiative to Portuguese soil. The goal is that also the Portuguese can contribute to the creation and development of creative ideas and useful for the refugees. If, on the one hand, the organization intends to increase the knowledge that people have about the topic, on the other, you want to join the entrepreneurial community, designers, and programmers to discuss and develop technological solutions that help migrants in their arrival and integration in the host country.
"The Techfugees has done a pretty great job in identifying problems. The fact that the organization contain people who actually are on the ground, people who every day deal with refugees, causes end up to have a privileged position to identify the problems", explains Inês Santos Silva to the Observer.
the Identified deficiencies or needs that can be minimized, the Techfugees gasket "at the table" people, organizations, and public and private institutions, and throws the topic for discussion. "To the front we want to organise monthly events in different sites of the country, and join organizations that are already working on the topic, with people from the areas of technology," explains the ambassador.
as is the case in other cities, the Techfugees Portugal want to organize, even in the first half of 2017, a hackathon (programming marathon) to join entrepreneurs who want to put "hands in the dough" and create solutions to the problems that will be previously identified by the members of the organization who work on the ground, next to the refugees.
And already several initiatives have been put into practice. In London, in the past year, from a hackathon, emerged GeeCycle.org, a website where people can "recycle" your phone and make it reach to a refugee. This year, in Oslo, Norway, was created to Kom Inn, a platform that helps refugees to come into contact with the new neighbours, your new home, during a dinner party. In this way, the integration with the local citizens and learning the language is facilitated. Also the SkiwoGo you want to help overcome the language barrier, with the creation of an application that helps in the translation and linking refugees with volunteers, through a video chat live.
it Is a very practical way of making things happen, bringing people together and, at the end of the week, leaving solutions that then they go to the ground and are implemented," explains Inês Santos.
The implementation turns out to be made by a network of volunteers who are working on the ground and identify the problems so that others can then develop solutions that help minimize the difficulties of how many are chasing a european dream.
The nonprofit organization was founded in September 2015, in London, spread to several european city, creating an international network that has already reached to the five continents. Your action still goes by the involvement in initiatives of international organisations with social responsibility such as the European Commission and the United Nations so that, also in these institutions, is represented "the voice of the entrepreneurial community and technology", he concludes.
The Portuguese community will be presented on the 8th of November, at 18.30, in Lost Lisbon. The event will count with the presence of the founder, Mike Butcher, taking advantage of the presence of the thousands of people who are in town for the Web Summit.
Edited by Ana Pimentel
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