This episode's topic is about the humanitarian crisis in Syria and technology efforts to address it. According to the United Nations there are over 4 million Syrian refugees who have been displaced, either internally or externally in host countries in the region such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt and others outside the region.
Rebuilding a life after war is a challenging endeavor on all fronts and for everyone involved. For the governments affected by the war who have limited resources to work with. The allies sending in support trying to determine what would be the most useful aid and figuring out how best to get it to the right people. And of course the countless affected people who either stay in the country after the war has ended or have fled and become refugees elsewhere.
In such circumstances addressing basic needs such as providing food, shelter and clothing can be a challenge. This is a continued need that the government or external countries can help provide for a temporary period of time to help the individual affected by the conflict whether displaced or not can pick up the pieces and re-build their lives. The problem arises when these individuals can not find work or do not have the skills to aquire work and provide the basics: food, shelter and clothing.
Many initiatives have sprung up to try and address this problem. Through conferences, hackathons and collaborative efforts, the non-profit organization Techfugees (http://techfugees.com) whose purpose is to bring together engineers, entrepreneurs and start-ups and link them up with NGOs and other agencies to tackle the problem together.
Refugee Tech (http://refugeetech.com) has a similar philosophy as they focus on connecting stakeholders, innovators and tech-savvy people to develop creative solutions to address the refugee crisis. Their strategy is to take the conversations they've had with refugees about their problems and find people who can give them solutions through innovative technology. The best ideas that come out of their research get turned into tools and services to improve the lives of thousands of refugees. Other initiatives such as MigrationHub (www.migrationhub.eu) are focused on the migration challenge in europe and looking to find architectural and design solutions.
For the millions who are displaced it has been a difficult task to register them and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)has enlisted IrisGuard (http://www.irisguard.com) to help compile a database of the refugees. Through the use of iris scans as a means of identification and form of registration IrisGuard has already registered over 1.6 million vulnerable Syrian refugees displaced throughout the neighboring countries in the Middle East.
Thanks to this EyeBank refugees are getting quicker access to food aid in Jordan and are able to withdraw money from banks in a secure fashion. This technology is a milestone in overcoming challenges posed by lost documentation and paperwork of the refugees.
After, food, shelter, and safety have been addressed, the refugees then need to address another problem – finding work. It becomes a viscious cycle when these individuals can not find work, or do not have the skills to acquire work and provide the basics: food, shelter and clothing.
In this episode we talk to Kiron University, which is one of the biggest educational institution for refugees in the world, and hear about how their university helps refugees get their life back on track. (https://kiron.university) What makes them so unique is that they are a blended learning institution – what that means is that they combine digital education online and offline education to provide academic programs. Because of their innovative approach to education, they are finalists at Google's Impact Challenge. For those who are unaware of the “Google Impact Challenge” it is a global initiative aimed towards local nonprofits asking them “how they would use innovation to make a better world” and the public gets to vote for the projects that they think have the greatest impact potential.
Listen to podcast on SoundCloud here or on iTunes.
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Follow On Food For Thought Questions:
* Humanitarian aid has come in many forms, how can Kiron contribute to nation-state efforts in providing education?
* Countless children are affected by war and have to stop their formal education. Should a Kiron University for children be established? What would be the challenges in creating something like this?
[Discuss, the cultural, religious, linguistic, connectivity challenges]
* What other types of businesses could be created around helping refugees get their life back on track?