Code for Africa Hacks/Hackers Event on Refugee Crisis: A discussion on how the community can help

This month, REFUNITE’s Tech Lead, Laban Mwangi and Communications Assistant, Lotta Relander spoke at Code for Africa’s Hacks/Hackers event at Nairobi Garage in Nairobi, Kenya. This event was put together by Code for Africa, the continent’s largest data journalism and civic technology initiative that aims to help make data easily available for journalists and fellow citizens. Code for Africa holds monthly events for hacks (journalists) and hackers (techies) to get the community together to discuss current issues, brainstorm and collaborate possible solutions. This month’s topic focused on the current refugee crisis, and how the community of hacks and hackers can come together and help.

Representatives of REFUNITE, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) all gave keynote speeches at the event, sharing with the community what they do, challenges they have faced, as well as what opportunities exist for hacks and hackers to join the efforts and help. Each keynote was followed by a Q&A session where audience members could ask anything about the organizations or refugees in general.

During the presentation, team members of REFUNITE explained how the family reconnection platform works and how REFUNITE is reacting to the recent influx of displaced families into the Middle East and Europe. Duke Mwancha, Communications Associate at UNHCR talked about the difference between refugees, asylum seekers, stateless people, and the importance of understanding the needs of each group. Finally, Moses Sitati, who is Lab Manager at The Humanitarian Data Exchange showed how their open platform makes humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis by anyone.