There was such overwhelming interest in our Global Hack for Good on World Refugee Day – we could not accommodate all that wanted to participate! So we are announcing the old fashioned way – on Facebook and Twitter!

First, the challenge: The number of forcibly displaced people around the world is measured now at 43 million. Many are families who have been separated due to conflict, war, and disaster. Most have no access to computers or the internet other than on a mobile phone. That is why a mobile platform to help them reconnect is so important. Last year, Bill Clinton highlighted the Refugees United initiative in his Time Magazine cover story, as a great example of how technology can help make concrete progress to meet global challenges.

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

The Global #HackForGood spanned Cairo, Silicon Valley and Nairobi over the past month, and all of the developers came up with innovative solutions to some of the challenges facing refugees trying to reconnect with family.

The winners were selected by a jury made up of Ericsson and Refugees United. And the winners are…

•  Nairobi: “DKK”, which enables volunteers to collect data offline and synchronizes it with an online server when connection is available. By David Kirui.
•  Silicon Valley: “Message wizard” which enhances the usability experience of the current refunite mobile application. By Zac Halbert.
• Cairo: “Interactive Voice Response” which enable illiterate people connect with the Refugees United platform.  By Mohamed Abdellatif.

Each of these winners will have a chance to road-test their apps in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya later this year. Stay tuned and continue to follow all of the partners on this great journey. Thanks to everyone who participated, it was an inspiring event!