Google, UNHCR team up to explain Syrian refugee crisis

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United Nations’ refugee agency has partnered with Google to launch a new website aimed at answering the five most common questions about the Syrian refugee crisis. The “Searching for Syria” site launched on Monday and will be featured on the Google home page “in selected countries,” according to a press release from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The Verge says.

Searching for Syria combines data from the UNHCR and Google to answer five questions: “what was Syria like before the war?”; “what is happening in Syria?”; “who is a refugee?”; “where are Syrian refugees going?”; and “how can I help Syrian refugees?” The site includes stories of people who have been displaced by the six-year war, alongside statistics that detail the scope of its devastation.

It also features 360-degree videos of ancient sites that have been damaged or destroyed during the conflict, as well as Google Earth imagery taken before and after the war. A link to donate to the UNHCR is included at the very bottom of the page, as well as a link to the organization’s #WithRefugees petition, which calls for guaranteed education for refugee children and adequate homes for displaced families.

“Searching for Syria aims to dispel myths and misconceptions about Syria and refugees and provide an entirely fresh look at the biggest humanitarian tragedy of today,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement Monday. “This is a fantastic project with Google that allows us to pinpoint and answer the five key questions about Syrian refugees and displaced that audiences most want to know and help us rally much needed support and funding for our humanitarian effort.”

The site is currently available in English, French, German and Spanish, with an Arabic version to launch soon.