San Francisco: Google has announced an additional $300,000 grant to help the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) further prepare refugees for the changing nature of work.
Google.org would host online training to help refugees and host community members in the MENA region including Algeria and Morocco learn digital skills throughout a course of a year, the company said in a statement late Saturday.
More than 79 million were displaced at the end of last year as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations — 29 million of which were refugees.
“Since 2015, we’ve given more than $30 million in Google.org grants to help provide emergency support and access to vital information and educational resources to more than one million refugees,” said Jacquelline Fuller, President, Google.org on World Refugee Day.
“We’re supporting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with $550,000 Google.org and YouTube grants to provide refugees with necessary materials to endure the pandemic, digital skills training series and updates to Google Search in affected countries so people have access to reliable information at all times,” Fuller explained.
YouTube has already donated $250,000 to UNHCR to help provide life-saving support, including water, medical care and hygiene materials to refugees and the communities who host them in affected countries.
According to UNHCR, 47 per cent of the refugee population in 2019 was between the ages 18 and 59, and the unemployment rate in this demographic is expected to rise.
Google is also helping UNHCR navigate its developer platform to provide refugees with authoritative answers clearly displayed on Google Search to questions like “What happens during the Refugee Status Determination interview?” and “How to qualify for cash assistance?”
These results are already available in Arabic, English, Turkish and Farsi, to help refugees who are staying in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, informed Google.
