18 March 2022
Update – 31 March 2022
2 weeks after launch, we are overwhelmed by the response toย refugeehelp.nl: 65K users and over 2,600ย comments and suggestions.
๐จ โ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ด ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต! ๐๐ฆ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ญ๐บ!โ
ย
๐จ โ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ด (…)โ
ย
๐จ โ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ! ๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ถ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ข๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด?”
Thanks to the entire team VluchtelingenWerk Nederlandย and NAVARA, all partner organizations, and all theย peopleย who are offering their help via the platform.
Background information RefugeeHelp.nl
The aim of RefugeeHelp.nl is to help refugees who arrive in the Netherlands by offering them one clear and central online platform where they can go for all relevant issues and needs such as shelter, food, medical care, legal help, work, education etc. This platform will also serve to give individuals, companies and institutions who want to contribute a place to do so.
A brief overview of the most important elements of the platform today:
- Fully developed from the perspective of refugees. Refugees are actively involved in the development through interviews and working sessions.
- Available in English, Ukrainian and Russian, developed for cell phones.
- The central place with all information for refugees in the Netherlands, with the latest information and references to relevant (government) agencies, NGOs and current (local) initiatives.
We believe that this platform offers a number of clear advantages: One accessible and transparent overview of initiatives for both refugees and volunteers. Lots of relevant information from all parties so that there are fewer questions arising on the supply and demand side. Reduced pressure on the involved organizations. Increased transparency of what refugees need and where bottlenecks exist. The platform will be further developed and new components and functionalities will be added in the near future in order to better match supply and demand.
Collaboration
SparkOptimus and Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland started the initiative together because we experience a momentum and great willingness among the various organizations and companies involved to work on this together. The starting point is that this platform transcends all parties and does not belong to one organization, but to everyone. Leading digital parties are involved as well as various organizations and government agencies.
The SparkOptimus team incl. Ukrainian refugee Julia from Kharkov
Platform focus
The focus will initially be on building a platform for Ukrainian refugees, but later it will naturally expand to a platform that can also be used for refugees from other countries. The aim is to get a first version live as soon as possible given the high urgency, but also to establish a sustainable organization that can realize a continuous series of improvements in the coming months and years.