A group of students from Rio Grande do Sul Helping Hand created a website and software to help immigrants and refugees
. Photo: Bruna Maria de Moura
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This post was originally published on the blog MigraMundo and republished by Global Voices as part of an agreement to share content.
Find information about organizations working with migration and shelters is not easy for immigrants and refugees in Brazil, due to certain barriers such as language and the lack of a place to focus at least part of the data.
Given this fact, a group of five students from Rio Grande do Sul, State of southern Brazil, he decided to create a tool that could help guide immigrants in this task. That’s why Helping Hand was born, a pioneer information service for immigrants.
Helping Hand has five languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Portuguese) and collect names, addresses and contacts of an amount entities that are somehow related to migration agencies, international, legal assistance, support centers, communities and societies, religious temples, government agencies, consulates and embassies, educational institutions, Portuguese classes, job opportunities and health services. All information is available on a web site and software for Android smartphones.
Click here for the website
Click here to download the software (only for smartphones Android)
From the class to reality
Helping Hand was developed by five young women (Aline Weber, Ingrid Baggio, Laís Belinski, Luana Lazzarotto and Monique Machado) of between 17 and 18, from a technical course in computer for the Internet, joined the high school campus Bento Gonçalves Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS).
The idea came in January this year when one of the teachers of the course issued a call Technovation competition, which aims to insert women in the technology market through the development of software social impact. And within the same group already it had some awareness regarding the issue of migration, an issue that led the quintet to put the idea into practice.
“We think of a way to really help people who are going through needs, and as it is a topic that is not often addressed in our region (but no less present problem) we decided to work in this field, “says Ingrid Baggio, 17 and one of the team members.
She works as a translator and want to study history and international relations at the top level. “In particular, I was always interested in issues that involve displacement. However, in the past year, with the growing number of Haitian immigrants who settle in our city, it was just hard to look away, “he adds.
Logo Helping Hand , web and software for immigrants and refugees site
Photo:.. Helping Hand / Broadcast
The development of Helping Hand, who is in charge of Technovation, was a real race against time. Between the idea and the completion of the project – which even included the preparation of the business plan – passed only two months, in which students needed to combine the job with work, school and other daily activities. “So it seems a little silly to do all this in two months, which is why we have the help of several institutions that gave us information to the address list (which is basically the soul of our project),” reflects Ingrid.
Entities and supports
At first, the institutions listed were those that dealt more directly with refugees from Rio Grande do Sul. However, expanded the scope after the team saw the need for immigrants of other nationalities who do not conform to the classification of a refugee, but they needed to obtain useful information.
The vast majority of the organizations on the list They are Rio Grande do Sul, but you can also find information institutions in other parts of Brazil. Any organization that is linked to migration, regardless of the region, can have your contacts available from Helping Hand to only complete the form found on the website or software. Then, the information provided will be reviewed by the team and published.
Click here to access the form
According to the story of Ingrid, during the mapping, the team experienced both receptivity distrust of some institutions on Helping Hand. “I talked to some people who were extremely pessimistic about the project and some who refused to provide information or data. But we also had very positive experiences with highly cooperative people “he says.
The Helping Hand team still maintains contact with some of the institutions and individuals who helped in the collection of data listed in the platform and in tasks such as translations and review of information available in five languages. At the same time, the students are divided as can the dissemination and seeking support for the project together with other organizations and dedicated to migration portals.
Recognition
The work already provides visible results for Helping Hand. The project was semifinalist Technovation and won the Girls Make App award, in association with Technovation, Microsoft and Global Summit of Women (held recently in Sao Paulo), which awarded him a year of tutoring Microsoft.
In addition, Helping Hand is being spread by various agencies and related migration issues such as gáire (Advisory Group for Immigrants and Refugees) in Rio Grande do Sul and Faces of Migration sites.
Maintenance and challenges
The project has financial support but have a bank account to receive donations that will be transferred to institutions related to migration. Ingrid said that only 5% of the amount collected will remain in the team, in order to afford the website domain and software maintenance in playstore.
Another challenge faced is to help Helping Hand combat prejudice against new immigrants in several cities in Rio Grande do Sul -. reality also repeated in other regions of Brazil
Ingrid remembers a 2014 report Fantastic (program broadcast on Sunday at the night TV Globo), in which the inhabitants of Caxias do Sul (neighboring town of Bento Gonçalves) said that Haitians illnesses and Senegalese immigrants brought to the city and had no right to live in that space. “Many people spread silly rumors about immigrants and the local population prefers to isolate rather than welcome them.”
when asked about the future of Helping Hand, Ingrid believes that the team’s idea is to continue cooperating with project, even after the completion of studies of technical training. But as a citizen, she already held the fact of having known a little more the reality of the new immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul.
“This project was wonderful and we were able to get in touch not only with statistics but also with people, immigrants, refugees, hear their stories, understand their difficulties, needs and I think that’s more valuable than any data collected on the Internet, any surface number. I think we can still explore this subject and I think it really is possible to make an impact in our community with our work. “
In November 2014, an entry posted on MigraMundo on software news and services on migration in the world noted the lack of such an initiative in Brazil. Fortunately, with the advent of actions such as those conducted Helping Hand, this gap is being covered slowly.
How can we help?
If you want to donate, you can do so through the following account: 24.144-x the Bank of Brazil, agency 2969-6. You can also communicate via e-mail contatohelpinghand@gmail.com.
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