The name of Nekbakht Zabirov was mentioned on the pages of Asia-Plus eight years ago. Then we wrote about him among the Dushanbe schoolchildren who developed a program that allows transmitting information in conditions of low Internet speed.

Today, Nekbakht is the chief software designer of Samsung Research and Development Institute in Kiev. And a 24-year-old Tajik has developed a special program that helps Ukrainian refugees adapt to a new country for them.

Nekbakht Zabirov left Tajikistan seven years ago, and has been living in Ukraine for the fourth year. The guy has been to many countries, but decided to build his life in Ukraine. He did not choose it by chance.

He was inspired by the election of the current president, Vladimir Zelensky, who was elected in the spring of 2019. Nekbakht followed the process with interest.

"I was struck by the fact that free elections can take place in the post-Soviet space. A simple actor and showman is running for president. Moreover, he becomes an opponent of the current president and the richest man in the country, and at the same time wins," Nekbakht notes.

On arrival in Ukraine, the guy learned the language and began to send his resume to various organizations in the field of IT in order to obtain a permanent visa. Soon he received an invitation from the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. He was offered a job in the Digital State Development department, where his task was to decide which companies would receive a state order for software development.

A year later, Nekbakt moved to Lviv and got a job at a private outsourcing IT company D2.Fusion.

Today he lives in Kiev and works as a chief software designer at Samsung Research and Development Institute.

Since the beginning of the invasion of Russian army in Ukraine, Nekbakht, like many of its residents, thought of leaving the country. But later he abandoned this idea, because many of his friends, citizens of Ukraine, could not do this because of mobilization. He also stayed in the country.

"I was living in Lviv then. Together with our colleagues, we began to think about how to help Ukraine and its residents. The idea came thanks to the story of a friend who fled with her children to Europe," says our interlocutor.

There she had difficulties with paperwork. Due to excessive bureaucratic procedures, she could not enroll her child to a pediatrician for a long time. And there were a lot of such stories later."

Together with the team, Nekbakht developed a special platform "Handy Friends" (Convenient friends), which allows Ukrainian refugees to receive assistance abroad.

"We have adapted our system to a chatbot in Telegram and Viber. There every Ukrainian abroad can get help on various issues from other compatriots. For example, legal assistance, recommendations on finding housing, work, finding the right doctor, deciding on a kindergarten or school, and much more," the Tajik explains.

The developers launched the program at their own expense. In turn, Ukrainian state companies and volunteers began to actively promote the bot. Today, this platform is used by about 5 million Ukrainians who have been forced to leave their homes.

"At the moment, the most active service is "Find a job". I am proud of Ukrainians, because they are not ready to live on one allowance, they want to work and provide for themselves," says Nekbakht. - The "Find housing" service is also popular.

We have collected a huge database across Europe and North America. There are people in it who are ready to settle Ukrainians at home, and a large number of hotels that can provide a room for free. Our bot is based, mostly, on the activity of volunteers and caring people. The Ukrainian diaspora also helps."

The bot is periodically updated with new data. Recently, developers have added the "Family Assistance" service. It is for those who are in Canada. Through it, you can get a car for free if there are two or more children in the family.

The fact that the bot really helps Ukrainians is confirmed by user comments. Here is one of them:

"It is very difficult to get a child into school in Italy. But with the help of a bot, I was able to send my children to a private school in Milan close to our home. They come for them every day and take them home from school. The children were also given clothes, textbooks and provided with a tutor in Italian for free," the woman writes.