Seventy Israeli developers participated in a special hackathon aimed to help in the integration of Ukrainian refugees.
Representatives from Kaltura, Salesforce, Sid Israel – the Association for International Development, and the Israeli Council for Volunteering, attended the event that debuted by #Code4Ukraine together with Israeli startup Guesty.
The project brings together Israeli developers, Israelis living in Berlin, and Ukrainian high-tech workers to help a nation who were unexpectedly confronted with the problems of reintegrating into new nations and cultures.
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Elya Livshitz, a group manager at Guesty, which employs 50 Ukrainian developers, spearheaded the project. Livshitz chose to leverage the talents and abilities of Guesty employees and developers from other organizations to give a hand.
The “Friends In Israel” team won first prize for developing an app that connects new immigrants with Israeli families in order to facilitate their absorption into Israeli culture. Among other things, the application will allow the placement of refugee children in appropriate educational institutions in Israel.
The second-place winners, led by Alisa Vysoky, a former Ukrainian refugee, created the SAFEWAY platform to connect Ukrainian women with volunteers and local social organizations worldwide. The platform will facilitate bilateral conversation aimed at fostering a safe environment for women and averting exploitative scenarios.
Other groups involved in the project developed technologies to assist refugees suffering from anxiety, with housing placement, equipment transportation, donation platforms, software for locating aid organizations, and informing refugees about their rights and how to exercise them.
“We are proud of Elya’s initiative and the broad mobilization of developers to find solutions to help Ukrainians during this difficult time,” said Amiad Soto, CEO of Guesty. “As a company with a substantial part of its development team located in Ukraine, we have been mobilizing to help our employees from the first moment. We are happy to expand the assistance options to the significant number of refugees now scattered around the world. “
Teams:
1st place – Friends in Israel, led by Gregory Dardyk: Connect Israeli families with Olim families for guidance, friendship, and generally for a sense of community and togetherness.
Status: In final steps to complete the mobile app and begin using it in practice in their existing operation.
2nd place – SAFEWAY, led by Alisa Vysoky: Centralized DB for the use of organizations at the borders. Creating a two-way communication and information channel that will enable the volunteers in the field to provide help to more women, to be exposed to more women in need, and enabling them to be referred to the relevant LOCAL organization.
Status: A team has been built and got the final design. The will continue implementation of the app.
2nd place – UFindAid, led by Pavel Korshov: A platform of communities with information on the border
Status: Waiting to demo the results with the NGO for feedback and actual integration with them.
Arrival Support, led by Danielle Tal: Improving a website that makes information accessible for refugees and volunteers (mainly in Berlin).
Status: The product got a great boost and is ready to be used. The only thing missing is some effort for content generation and translations then it’s ready to be used by actual refugees on the borders.
Helpli, led by Tal Tordzman: Building a platform for creating flexible marketplaces for different non-profits to use to connect people with needs and donors around the areas.
Status: The team is about to demo the results to the NGO and start integration.
AVA Mind Psychology, led by Misha Gipsman: Chatbot in telegram (Ukrainian, Russian, English) – mental help resources for those dealing with general anxiety. Prevention of development/aggravation of PTSD. Enabling the sight of a purpose and prospect to the future.
Status: The team has built a great team & community around it and continues to implement the app
