Humanitarian assistance
Commit Global through its Civic Lab (Code for Romania) already built, deployed and is maintaining a first of its kind Humanitarian Civic Infrastructure in support of the Ukrainian refugees. From ensuring their access to timely and accurate information, housing, transport and health support, to equipping UN and government agencies with the aid management tools they need for rapid effective intervention, an integrated ecosystem of digital solutions is making sure no refugee is left behind and safety for the vulnerable is ensured.
Our growing ecosystem of civic infrastructure is meant to offer safe access to housing and vital resources, to enable access to timely information and ensuring health services for the chronically ill and to tackle the challenges of medium and long term integration of the migrant population.
Discover below some of our work on Humanitarian Assistance.
Dopomoha.ro
Our first mission in the humanitarian crisis has been to provide refugees with reliable, timely information about everything they might search for. In less than 48h, refugees had access to information on how to cross the border, what documents they need, what will their status be in the destination country, how to access services and help and how to stay safe on their way in four languages. Dopomoha.ro has been, starting the 26th of February 2022 the official information platform of governmental agencies, UN agencies and civil society, used by over one million refugees coming in from Ukraine. This unique info point grants access to all verified services and provides accurate info to all refugees in a friendly and comprehensive vocabulary. Bringing together all the relevant actors that intervene in such crises is key to developing trust among the vulnerable and also prevents many of the potential attempts at disinformation, discourages human trafficking websites and guides refugees towards the right content.
The system is deployable in just a few hours in case of any crisis, and multiple instances of the same solution can be maintained centralized and updates can be done synchronously on all online systems. It also contains service mapping capabilities and integrations will third party maps.
Aid Management Central Dashboard
A critical piece of the digital infrastructure we have built has been the aid management systems used by the authorities, UN agencies and civil society to manage housing and resources made available for refugees. A complex platform to enlist and validate housing offerings together with an aid stock manager and transportation services for the refugees have been set in place in just seven days. The housing system is in particular one of its kind as it allows for deep validation of users who register as hosts. The authorities and UN agencies have full control over allocation making sure that every group of people is places in a safe and suitable environment. The simple forms used to submit requests and housing offers also collect information about special needs or specific medical conditions that would require for anyone to be placed in specially designed homes and reduce the time needed to find appropriate housing. Similarly, the transport component collects identification data about drivers and their vehicles to be able to verify their background and make sure that refugees are not put in danger. The systems can integrate with police databases for ruling out people with violent backgrounds and much more.
Chronic Care
Ensuring that chronically ill patients have access to the proper healthcare services and professionals as fast as possible is vital in crisis situations. Making sure that even before leaving the conflict area, every person can request medical support upon arrival is vital for them. The health access modules provide the CSO or authority with case management features that allow them to take in requests, to allocate these requests to medical facilities, to allocate medication from a a digital stock manager and to keep an updated patient file and assistance history. This way shortages in medical services or treatment can be prevented and resources can be allocated effectively to the target population.
The solution allows for custom form design in any language and can be used for any type of request necessary. Having the capacity to adjust all of the pages of this case manager, to upload databases with medical facilities and medication, or lists of doctors and their contact details without any kind of tech development needed, allows us to deploy this solution within hours from the moment the need arises.
Women Center
This building block is a full digital hub to address the needs of women who are fleeing conflict areas or are trying to escape violent situations of any sorts. The digital platform allows for taking in requests for services from the victims, employs a fully customizable interface with a friendly content management system behind it to publish content in multiple languages to support women with detailed info on safety measures, available services, hotlines and much more. The platform is built to be fully responsive and accessible for people with dissabilities and it can be published as a mobile app in a few easy steps.
Information Management System
It is critical that in difficult moments people stay informed from trustworthy sources. The Information Management System is a platform dedicated to publishing news and official communications as well as display relevant documents in order for people and the media have direct access to the original piece of information disseminated either by official first responders, or international agencies on the ground. The system is an information management publishing platform designed to accommodate various types of media and comes together with two add-ons for browsers (Chrome and Mozzilla) that once installed will identify keywords on any page visited by a user and will guide the user to the places where he can verify if that information is true or not.
Widget Hub
Widget hub is a repository for media, bloggers, and in general every entity with a followers base. Here they can find snippets of code that they can embed on their platforms that direct their users to verified information and other support systems. This way we ensure that we multiply the impact of all the information management systems deployed to combat disinformation and to make sure the audiences reach the verified info as easy as possible.
HelpOut
HelpOut is a crowdfunding platform that can be set up in crisis times that allows for verified CSOs who do work in the affected areas and support the vulnerable groups who need assistance to receive online donations. For donors this is a simple way of making sure they are donating directly to trusted CSOs and that they can trace later on what happened to their donations as the organisations have to report back in a very simple format what they have spent the funds they received on.
PTSD App
The PTSD App is a multilingual application dedicated to people suffering from PTSD who need immediate support and they cannot access it due to geographical or other types of barriers. Designed as a personal assistant the system helps by providing information on how it manifests, by embedding exercises to use in difficult moments, tests to self evaluate situations and indications on where to seek emergency help if needed and much more.
Volunteer management
CSOs work closely with many volunteers with diverse abilities and skills. Volunteers are an essential component in the life of civil society, but only their management can be a time-consuming and valuable resource. This open-source assistant helps civil society better manage its volunteer communities, volunteer contracts and the databases that contain them. Built as a two-component system - one web and one mobile, Teo helps organizations keep in touch with volunteers, keep track of them and the hours they work pro-bono, and the volunteer contracts they manage.
Moreover, the solution allows also for synchronized notifications, record keeping on activity and data collection on the ground. This building block may be integrated with emergency intervention solutions in order to facilitate the deployment of volunteer support on the ground where their help is needed.
Database manager
Each organization works with multiple tools and databases that do not communicate with each other, making it difficult for those who operate with this data to extract useful information and be able to have more clarity in the management of target audiences, donors and all other stakeholders.
The need for fast access to information, ease of navigation through many locations where information about one single person or item can be found as well as many other export, graph generation features should be at the fingertips of every non-profit organisation. This tool is a CSO assistant, specialized in working with databases, and as an open-source tool easy to use and adaptable to the needs of each organization.
Support this initiative
If you want to support the maintenance and further development of the Civic Infrastructure for civil society organisations or if you want to discuss a potential partnership with Commit Global please get in touch with our core team at info@commitglobal.org. Our team will get in touch as soon as possible.