A month ago, Google has called for donations to assist the current situation concerning refugees and immigrants caught up in the crisis in the Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. These donations are used to support high-impact projects like providing wireless connectivity solutions in refugee camps, emergency cash transferto Lebanon and Jordan and access to education.

After raising a whopping US$5.5 million, the tech company is moving on to its next project to further the admirable cause. An open source project called Crisis Info Hub is established to address the problem of lack of timely, hyperlocal information for refugees. The platform will allow the dissemination of information in a lighweight, battery-saving way.

It is alrealy live in Lesvos, Greece and Google is expecting to open more such hubs in other locations. It will provide vital information such as transportation, medical facilities and lodging to the refugees. It is run by Google’s NGO partners, most of whom carry smartphones.

The company has also added Arabic into its growing list of languagesavailable on Google Translate. It was a 5x growth in Arabic translation in Germany. So now the language will be available for instant visual translation, online and offline. Google has also reached out to anyone who knows the language the refugees speak or the country to which they are travelling through to help improve the translation app.

You can lend a hand to the Google Translate Community if you speak Arabic or Germany.

The recent bout of refugee crisis has riled not only foreign countries but also our own with the not-too-long-ago outrage at the government for turning away the boatful of asylum seekers from Rohingya. Eventhough the nation is currently facing its own economic and political problems, we should not forget that they are those out there who can still use a helping hand if we can lend one.