By Beryl Lo, ETC Information Management Officer

The ETC in Ukraine has launched its chatbot to help the communities affected by conflict access their humanitarian entitlements. Under the Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) mandate, the chatbot gives information on the availability of assistance and services, helping people understand where, when, and how to get what they need.

The chatbot is called vBezpetsi (вБезпеці in Ukrainian), which translates to “safe spaces”, and was designed with strong collaboration between the Protection Cluster and the AAP Working Group.

“At the beginning of the crisis, we missed a lot of information on humanitarian assistance because I didn't know where to get it. The ETC Chatbot, vBezpetsi, is very useful as all the information is in one place, especially about my rights and entitlements. We like it a lot.” said Olena, who was evacuated from Kharkiv following the conflict that began in Ukraine on 24 February.

Over the past two weeks, Maria Gonzalez Garcia, the ETC Services for Communities Officer, has been collecting feedback from  vBezpetsi users in Ukraine. Consultations have been conducted in Lviv with affected communities and the volunteers supporting them. So far, the feedback has been positive, with users highlighting the helpfulness of information and user friendly layout of vBezpetsi.