'My project will help solve this problem': Conestoga graduate project provides new platform is search for missing Syrians

Kitchener grad creates website to reunite families A Conestoga College grad has created an online platform to reunite families in Turkiye and Syria. Hannah Schmidt explains.

It takes painstaking leg work for grieving families to search for missing loved ones.

Dima Aldera, a graduate of Conestoga College is using a final year class project to make that process easier on families for those with missing loved ones in Turkiye and Syria.

"I started on this project because I have to mention there is a big problem, and my project will help solve this problem," she said.

The graphic design grad’s vision was to help families affected by the ongoing crisis in war-torn Syria.

"I like to help Syrian people with any way, each person has their own way to help Syrians, but this [is a] way no one had done before."

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 Syrians have been forcibly abducted, disappeared and detained over the last decade amid Syria’s civil war. For Aldera, it hits close to home.

"I have friends in Turkiye, I contact with them, they are working and volunteering in the hospitals, and I told them just browse the website. If you can see any face you see anywhere, I will tell their families."

With her site findsuri, people can submit details and photos of missing people to be shared on the site, a secure platform to share information about those who are missing.

"We're not publishing sensitive information, they are not publishing the family's, individuals information, just photos for the missing one and his name," explained Aldera.

Aldera launched the site earlier this year just as Syria and Turkiye were struck with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Close to 40 profiles have been published, with five cases solved so far.

"Findsuri is not just for the earthquake crisis, it's for who's missing across the world, across the board, across the sea."

"I think it really helps connect people with information to people who need information. I think that really strengthens that sense of community, of community support," said Dr. Michael Stephenson, a physician with Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo and founder of their Refugee Health Centre.

Director of the Conestoga College Entrepreneurship Collective, Rose Matnak, says this is the first time the college has seen a project of this magnitude come form one of their students.

"This is absolutely the first time, and we're so proud to be part of findsuri journey,” said Mastnak. “She immediately impressed us by doing the thing that every founder should want to do which is identifying a clear problem."

As for next steps, Aldera and Mastnak hope to expand findsuri’s site in the next month and even create an app to make the experience for families more mobile-friendly.