Refee

Refee is a user-friendly, simple, and intuitive application that aims to assist Ukrainian Refugee kids in communicating their basic needs and finding help abroad. The application is designed for children who are seeking shelter in Germany, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the USA. The application provides young refugees with a safe way to a safe place and facilitates their urgent integration into the accepting communities abroad in the early stages of adaptation, fulfilling their vitally important needs.

Refee can serve as a translation tool for the youngest users, created as a set of essential phrases that appear in the language of the country the child is currently placed. The “To Call” button allows the child to connect to the relevant hotline for refugees in a particular country. Defining the language and redirecting to the hotline of the state the child is currently in our automatic functions, which are determined by the device geolocation and don’t require internet or mobile data connection. Additionally, the application allows the user to know the country of dislocation based on GPS.

Important to mention, that we do not track or save children's geolocation by any means. We are working only with governments or the UN-curated hotlines for Ukrainian and international refugees to ensure the security of the contact centers. The safety of the children is our highest priority.

The application is available in Ukrainian and English languages. The application instruction is embedded in the application itself.

Refee was initially created for Ukrainians who left their homes and were looking for shelter abroad. The application was developed by SVIT - a team of four young Ukrainian women with support from Technovation and TE Connectivity. Since we were forced to leave our home cities and look for shelter abroad, we knew how many challenges refugees face while crossing the border and integrating into new communities. However, there are many more circumstances all over the world that force children to lose their homes; it is the reason why we tend to spread Refee wider.