Refugium

Home Page
Interactive Map
Booking Calendar

Inspiration

Our inspiration is in response to current events regarding the Ukraine-Russia conflict. We wanted to make a social impact by consolidating housing resources for refugees escaping Ukraine. There are currently 1.2 million displaced Ukrainians as a result of this conflict.

What it does

Our website provides a platform for hosts and refugees to connect to make housing arrangements. This allows for people who want to provide temporary housing for refugees to do so by signing up on our website. This information is stored in a database which is then integrated with an interactive map. This allows for an easy user interface and user experience for refugees who are currently looking for temporary housing. Our website also provides resources, such as relevant news, visa requirements, and available dates for housing.

How we built it

Our team mainly used NodeJS and postgreSQL to implement our website. We also utilized Google Maps API and News API to provide relevant data to our users. We used Visual Studio Code as our IDE and GitHub to commit changes and collaboratively work.

Challenges we ran into

We struggled with the integration of Google Maps API with our back-end development. We also struggled adding a functioning calendar feature for bookings. There were some difficulties integrating the log-in functionality with the interactive map, including passing data into the interactive map.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a team, we were fairly unexperienced in using Google APIs and creating dynamic calendars. Our accomplishment of creating an interactive map was a huge hurdle for us that we are very proud of. Many of our team members have struggled with front-end development as well and there was huge success in pushing our limits on how to design and program front-end aspects. We are very proud of being able to accomplish so many tasks that we were previously unskilled in.

What we learned

We learned a ton about APIs and integrating them into front-end development. Creating interactive maps was a huge learning curve for the team as well. We also learned quite a bit about refugee and visa statuses, as well as the never-ending struggles of refugees escaping war conflicts.

What's next for Refugee Housing

We would like to continue building out this website for public use. We would also like to expand the database and interactive map to include refugees from countries outside Ukraine.