Offline Refugee Document and Data Backup

Inspiration

I volunteered with refugees at the Ritsona camp in Greece for five weeks until the day before I arrived in Istanbul. I’ve met many people who have struggled to maintain important information while they’ve traveled. They did not expect to be stuck in a camp for months (maybe years) and are ill-prepared. Important data like legal document scans, medical information, photos as evidence of their situation, and contacts are vulnerable. It's stuffed into plastic bags in coat pockets, or stored on phones that have little or no access to wi-fi or electricity for charging. They have smartphones but data is expensive, 10 euros for 1 gig of mobile data. I met a refugee whose micro SD card had gotten corrupted due to the elements, losing all data. Another lost his passport while crossing a river in Turkey. Much of this these docs and photos will be important when proving their situation for asylum. Speaking with refugees about this problem has led me to the idea of creating a backup storage solution for those in camps that have limited technology resources.

What it does

Backups up essential documents and data that refugees have but can't upload.

How I built it

By talking with refugees, crowdsourcing flash drives, obtaining a tent that we can use at camp, and coming to Istanbul to talk about it.

Challenges I ran into

No electricity at camp. No wifi at camp.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Developing this project in less than 24 hours.

What I learned

That many organizations are disconnected from the reality of situation. That volunteering is complicated and challenging. Don't expect it to be easy or straightforward.

What's next

Presently, there is a tent set up at the Ritsona camp that can be used to pilot this project. There are over 600 residents, with more expected to arrive as other camps are closed. Crowd-funded USB drives (one per family) have been donated, along with a scanner and laptops. We are working towards the tent being “staffed” by trained volunteers from the refugee community along with one long-term volunteer from an NGO presently working there. On-site, and opened during certain hours per day, refugees would be assisted in the backup process by these volunteers to store their data in such a way as to have immediate and organized access to their information when needed. This safeguard can help expedite the legal process many of them are undertaking as well as provide peace of mind in these uncertain times. Based on the outcomes of this pilot, connections with other camps currently exist to further develop and expand. If there was a way that this information could be organized and standardized through the development of an app or other technology, perhaps it can help expedite the backlog of asylum and relocation requests across all the camps.

Built With

• android
• flash-drive
• laptop
• people
• usb
• volunteers