Urban Refuge Featured in CAS Magazine
Urban Refuge, an app created by students in the IR 500 Forced Migration and Human Trafficking class at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies which aims to connect refugees with resources through a simple mapping tool, was the subject of a recent feature in the College of Arts and Science Magazine.
The Urban Refuge app was featured in an article entitled “Putting Aid on the Map,” was featured in the Spring 2017 issue of the magazine.
From the text of the article:
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the refugee crisis in Syria, where 4.9 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. How, asked Noora Lori, a Pardee School of Global Studies assistant professor of international relations, could the students in her Forced Migration & Human Trafficking class respond to a crisis so urgent, yet so far away?
Lori challenged her students to come up with an innovative solution that could have a direct impact on the lives of Syrian refugees living in Jordan. After a semester of research, the students delivered the blueprint for Urban Refuge, a smartphone app that would make it easier for refugees in Jordan to find services and for NGOs and community organizations on the ground to better connect with those in need of help.
When the course ended, Lori’s students volunteered to continue with the project and make the app a reality. They launched a fundraising campaign on the BU Crowdfunding platform with the goal of raising $15,000—which they quickly surpassed. The class enlisted help from experts across BU, Syrian and Jordanian organizations, and others, including Microsoft New England, which helped develop the app. The Urban Refuge app—which will be free to use and was piloted in Amman, Jordan, in 2016—is scheduled to launch in May 2017.
Urban Refuge was also recently featured in Global South Development Magazine in an article entitled “Urban Refuge: Boston Students Create an App For Refugees in Jordan.”
For the text of the article:
In the streets of Amman, Jordan, Vicky Kelberer checks a map on her smartphone for what feels like the billionth time. But she’s not lost. And it’s not just any map. She’s scrolling through Urban Refuge, a mobile app developed by a Boston University course and Microsoft that maps aid organizations for refugees in Amman. It’s January and Kelberer has traveled thousands of miles to visit these organizations and update their information in the app, which is set to launch this summer.
Jordan hosts over 650,000 Syrian refugees, making it the third largest refugee host country in the world. Camps such as Za’atri accommodate only a fraction of Syrian refugees. Nearly 80 percent live in Jordan’s cities. Over 177,500 Syrian refugees live in Amman, cramming into rundown apartments in the city’s East side, along with low-income Jordanians and refugees from Palestine, Iraq and Sudan.
“It’s difficult for [urban] refugees to know what actual services exist,” says Kelberer, who recently published a United Nations report based on her research in Amman.
To support the Urban Refuge app, visit urbanrefuge.org or email ceo@urbanrefuge.org.