New Open Source App Helps Protect Children Displaced by Conflict

NEW YORK, 31 January 2017 – A life–saving service for vulnerable children caught up in crises is now available to government, aid agencies and social service workers through an open source app developed by UNICEF and its partners.

The app known as Primero, facilitates the secure collection, storage and sharing of data to improve child protection, incident monitoring and family reunification services by key players in the humanitarian sector.

The software is particularly crucial to the work of social workers in emergency situations to support children displaced by conflict.

On 18 January 2017 in Jordan, Hala Abu Ghoush accesses the Primero app via a laptop computer, in the Za’atari camp for Syrian refugees, in Mafraq Governorate, near the Syrian border. Credit-UNICEF“Primero will help social workers manage the cases of children forced to flee their homes. Once those children reach a place of safety they are often given multiple paper-based identities making it difficult for them to access the basic care that they so desperately need,” said Cornelius Williams, ‎Associate Director of Child Protection at UNICEF.

“New technology, such as Primero, strengthens the ability of governments and aid organizations to identify vulnerable children, provide them with life-saving services and protect them from exploitation and violence.”

Primero will be used in humanitarian settings in Lebanon, Jordan and the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and can be used more widely in other humanitarian situations in remote locations to access and update files as necessary.

The app, which also meets the needs of social workers in non-humanitarian contexts runs on a laptop, a privately-hosted server, or in a managed ‘cloud’ environment.

As an open source tool, Primero’s code is publicly available and encourages further application for children in communities displaced by conflict and crisis, and in other populations at risk of violence and exploitation.

Notes to Editors:
For more information on Primero and its source code visit:  http://www.primero.org

Photos available on http://uni.cf/2kKb4ns

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Gbolayemi Lufadeju Phone: + 121 326 7029;  Email: [email protected]