Seventy Israeli high-tech developers came together this week for the Code4Ukraine voluntary hackathon to develop humanitarian technologies to assist Ukrainian refugees in integrating into Israeli society.
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The project was led by Elya Livshitz, a group manager at the Guesty high-tech company, which employs 50 developers from Ukraine.
In the wake of the Russian invasion, Livshitz decided to harness the talents and abilities of Guesty and other developers to assist refugees who now suddenly faced challenges of integration into new countries and cultures.
The project involved developers from Israel, Israelis living in Berlin, and Ukrainian refugees working in high-tech.
The winners of the hackathon, the "Friends In Israel" team, developed an application that connects new immigrants with Israeli families and facilitates, among other things, the placement of refugee children into appropriate educational institutions in the country.
The second-place winners, led by Alisa Vysoky, a refugee herself, developed the SAFEWAY platform that connects Ukrainian women with volunteers and local social organizations around the world with an aim to create a safe environment for women and prevent situations of exploitation.
Other hackathon participants developed technologies to assist with mental relief for refugees suffering from anxiety, housing placement, assistance in transporting equipment, donation platforms, software for locating aid organizations, and informing refugees about their rights and how to exercise them.
"We are proud of Elya's initiative and the broad mobilization of developers to find solutions to help Ukrainians during this difficult time," CEO of Guesty Amiad Soto said. "As a company with a substantial part of its development team located in Ukraine, we have been mobilizing to help our employees from the first moment. We are happy to expand the assistance options to the significant number of refugees now scattered around the world. "
Joining in on the hackathon were high-tech companies Kaltura, Salesforce, Sid Israel – the Association for International Development, and the Israeli Council for Volunteering.
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