South Tyneside IT company launches free app to help displaced and separated Ukrainian refugee families to stay in touch
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ExCommunicate originally designed an app for separating couples, who may have split in acrimonious circumstances, to stay in touch with both each other and their children in order to share important information.
Company director Paul Briggs, 45, who is from Hebburn, has now adapted the technology to create the ExCommunicate Ukraine Free Family Tool App which can be downloaded without charge.
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Hide AdPaul, who’s a father of two boys, felt compelled to act after witnessing harrowing images of children saying goodbye to fathers as they fled the war-torn country with parents, in some cases mothers and fathers, left to fight on the front-line.
The app enables up to 30 family members to video and voice call each other as well as sharing messages and photographs.
Paul said: “You obviously have children saying goodbye to fathers who are having to fight, with children in some cases being split from both parents and families evacuating to one location and grandparents and extended families to another.
"It really hit home to me when I saw a young child getting off a train with a telephone number written on his arm. It just made me think how I would feel if I was in the position of being separated from my children.
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Hide AdFellow director, David Thompson, 36, added: “I have a daughter who lives with me and you just try to put yourselves in the position of what it must be like to be a father separated from his family and on the front-line.”
"If I was in that position then I would really want to know I could stay in touch.”
With families fleeing besieged towns and cities under Russian bombardment, both Paul and David were concerned about the potential communication implications of phones being lost, losing charge or being smashed as almost three million people have sought to seek sanctuary in neighbouring European countries.
Paul said: “We asked our developers to look at how we could adapt our current app to help the people of Ukraine. People are fleeing Ukraine in a state of panic. If you are separated from your family and you lose or break your phone then all your contacts are lost and you have no way of keeping in touch.
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Hide Ad"With this app, all you need is your login and password and you can communicate via any computer, tablet or another phone. Unlike platforms such as WhatsApp, it also allows up to 30 people to communicate at any one time.”
On Thursday (March 17) Paul is heading out to the Polish Ukraine border alongside volunteers from Hebburn Helps Food Bank, to deliver vital aid to refugee families. Whilst in Poland, he will be handing out leaflets to promote access to the app as well as bringing it to the attention of those overseeing support for the refugees.
Paul added: “There’s nothing worse for a child than not being able to speak with their parents and for a parent not knowing where their child is.”