This year’s opening speaker, Josephine Goube, has been nominated by Forbes as one of the “top 30 under 30 social entrepreneur” in 2016 through 2018. She is the CEO of Techfugees, a non-profit dedicated to organizing the tech community to aid with refugees and migrants.
Goube advocates the use of mobile and digital technology as a primary source for displaced refugees and migrants. She aims to provide them with access to information, healthcare, and education. In addition to being a board member on the Norwegian Refugee Council, she has worked as a tech evangelist for Yborder, a web-based cross border recruitment platform.
During her panel Let’s Tech Borders Down, Goube described her initial interest in assisting refugees and migrants. Having had the opportunity to travel the world, particularly for school, she mentioned how this impacted her life and aspirations.
Goube said, “it gave me a real connection with the world and a need to travel. I was able to enjoy much of this world because of one important factor–my passport.”
She found this to be profoundly unfair and thought to herself perhaps she could help others improve there lives. Goube discussed the launch of Techfugee. Specifically, she “tells the story of a simple idea that turned into a global movement.” Goube also shed light on the fact that migration has driven human innovation for many years.
“Dehumanizing is a process, and every genocide has be linked to that,” Goube commented, and “environmental issues are displacing three times as many people as wars are.”
Techfugees began with 300 people, and in just 48 hours, it grew out of proportion. Currently, there are over 15,000 members who are part of the tech community and want to get involved with the issue. Techfugees hosts hackathons and coding bootcamps and provide free Wi-Fi to migrants and refugees.
“What I’m most proud of is the community that took over,” said Goube, and “we must welcome human beings when they are being threatened.”
Check out Josephine Goupe during her panel Let’s Tech Borders Down.
To learn more, follow Techfugees on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Featured image: SXSW