Souktel, a 40-person startup based in Ramallah, is helping Syrian refugees settle down in Turkey. The Syrians arriving in the country are vulnerable to human rights violations, said Jacob Korenblum, the founder of Souktel.
This is the only country in the region which do not speak Arabic. The newly-arrived refugees have a language barrier, and no prior knowledge of the domestic legal system explained Korenblum. Thanks to Google Maps, WhatsApp and Facebook they can stay in touch with their families back home, but they also need help to start their new lives in an unfamiliar country. That is how Souktel comes in.
In cooperation with the American Bar Association, the startup provides legal assistance to the newcomers via mobile phones. They get help to find a decent home and meaningful jobs, as well as to enroll their kids at schools, to get their legal paperwork done and apply for visas and benefits.
The personnel of Souktel includes former humanitarian field workers, familiar with the refugee’s problems, and software engineers who are dealing with sorting, tagging and translating help requests into Turkish. Once the Turkish lawyers reply, the team converts it back to Arabic and send the information on the mobile number of the refugee.
Souktel is not a new player on the tech scene in the region. It was founded in 2005 by the former humanitarian worker Jacob Korenblum. It initially served as a mobile platform to connect job seekers and employers in Palestine. Subsequently, it expanded to other countries in the region.
Nowadays, it has reached over a million mobile device users in more than 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Its founder Korenblum commented:
We are currently focusing on artificial intelligence and chatbots to develop applications to better serve refugees and communities in need across the globe.