The Hackathon participants preparing for the pitching session with the jury committee

The ICRC concludes the "Humanitarian Hackathon 2021" and announces three winners

JERUSALEM - The “Humanitarian Hackathon 2021”, organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in partnership with MENACatalyst, was concluded this evening in Ramallah. More than 50 contestants from different West Bank governorates participated in the activities, and the winning projects were announced.
News release 13 November 2021 Israel and the occupied territories

The Humanitarian Hackathon 2021 comes as part of the ICRC's efforts to support young talents and university students and encourage them to come up with new ideas, build prototypes and launch innovative projects that can play an important role in saving the lives of those affected by conflict in the occupied territory.

The Hackathon focused on three main challenges facing the ICRC's work in the occupied territory: supporting medical services, helping civilians and marginalized communities, as well as the importance of communication and information-sharing as aid. The event also aims to find technological solutions and focuses on the use of virtual reality and initiatives that address key humanitarian issues.

Mohammed, one of the participants in the Hackathon, considered it a wonderful opportunity for university students to discuss humanitarian issues and challenges and try to find solutions for them.

"It is an important opportunity to learn about the modalities of the ICRC's work and the reasons for its presence in conflict areas, in addition to its partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society in particular," said Ayat, one of the participants. She also stressed the importance of volunteer work and the need to present creative ideas.

Sabah said, "I am looking forward to developing the ideas that were presented. It is necessary for the ICRC to support them and help implement them on the ground, as these challenges are an obstacle to humanitarian work in the occupied territory, and our task as youth and university students is to contribute to finding innovative solutions."

At the end of the event, the jury announced the winners of the three challenges. In the category "communication and information-sharing as aid", the Asiri application won. Asiri is an application which aims to link the ICRC with the families of detainees by providing various services to the families via the Internet, without the need to go to the ICRC offices.

The Side By Side application, which aims to link the ICRC with National Societies and allow them to connect with ICRC in real time manner in the event of violations, won in the category "supporting medical services".

As for the category of "helping civilians and marginalized communities", the V-Care application won. V-Care aims to keep marginalized communities in constant contact with ICRC staff as well as provide them with information about the services provided by the ICRC and how to benefit from those services.

 


For further information, please contact:

Yahia Masswadeh (Arabic, English), Jerusalem, tel: +972 52 601 9148

Chris Hanger (English, French, German), Jerusalem, tel:+972 52 601 9150

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