The first week of February was a special week for Refugees United, as this week saw our second hackathon of the year #HackForGood take place at the StartUp garage in Nairobi, Kenya. Here talented developers from both Kenya and Denmark worked intensely together for a whole week to improve Refugees United’s search tools. This event saw the developments of some great applications, which will increase the accessibility of Refugees United’s platform considerably. The specific outcomes were applications enabling searches via SMS and USSD, meaning that anyone will be able to search for long lost family from any low-cost mobile device very soon. 

Searching via SMS will work as a simple text message where you type the name of the person you are searching for. The USSD application will similarly allow you to search for missing loved ones without internet access. To use the USSD application you will type a code on your phone (i.e. *321…#) and your phone will then send you a notification if you have a match. USSD applications are very common in Africa where these are usually used for checking credit balances and call-back services. Refugees United’s USSD application will also allow you to send messages to people you might know through our platform.