Sofiia, Anastasiia D and Anastasiia F are from Ukraine and started a non-profit ‘Svit’ – to aid those who have been deeply affected by the war. Though they are still children themselves, they wanted to help those who appeared to be in a worse situation than their own. They were already working on developing a mobile app when Russia invaded Ukraine. They were inspired by powerful stories of Ukrainian children who were forced to cross the borders to other countries without the support of their parents and become refugees due to the war. They shifted their efforts for their mobile app project to take action and use technology to build a solution to support such children. 

They started the non-profit ‘SVIT’ to build support for their App ‘Refee’ which specifically helps the young Ukrainian refugees (aged 4 to 11) in finding all the necessary information they need to get to safety. The primary reason for developing Refee was to help children fulfill the basic needs like safety, food, shelter, and we wanted to do that by providing the tools for basic communication. Refee App covers the first steps and communication needs necessary when entering a new country.

They also developed another App – ‘SVITY’, which targets children above 16 years of age. SVITY App facilitates communication between refugee children and children from host communities in a safe and secure manner. This App is a step above the Refee App, as it aims to support refugee children who have already settled into the new country and are looking for social and moral support.