After 48 hours of work and power naps on carpeted floors, 11 teams presented an idea at the Vodafone Malta Foundation’s first hackathon for a social cause. The teams worked around the clock to create an app that tackled a social issue that is prevalent on the Maltese Islands.

What's a hackathon?

A hackathon, for those who are new to the word, is a marathon event where people come together to collaboratively build and launch tech-based solutions aimed at tackling a particular problem. In this case, the hackathon was related to social issues in Malta.

The hackathon was organised by the Vodafone Malta Foundation, a non-profit making organisation that is devoted to helping the vulnerable by using the power of mobile technology to help deliver social change.

Back in November, during the first stage of planning, the foundation invited NGOs for a workshop to better understand the reality of these social issues. The most pressing issues that arose were homelessness, loneliness within the elderly community, hunger and food waste, pairing voluntary help with those who need it, and recognising early signs of an individual’s situation leading to poverty and social exclusion. Each team was tasked with one topic to tackle.

A shocking 83,000 people in Malta are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, so this hackathon was targeted at tackling these issues. Jisimni, the winning solution, aimed to enable safe and accessible social interaction between elderly communities and to break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion on our islands.

The winners of the hackathon who came up with Jisimini were first-year University students Gabriele Borg, Megan Montebello, Matthew Axisa, Liam Attard and Benjamin Barthet. Their protoype resulted in a simple and easy-to-use app featuring large icons with a text-to-speech reader to facilitate safe and accessible social interaction between elderly communities to encourage them to meet each other, make friends and be out and about.

Some great features include:

1. An Events section, through which an elderly person can search for several events and activities close by, organised by NGOs or friends. This will also allow the user to sign up for that event and even request transport if needed.
2. A Come to Me button enables them to either invite friends or a volunteer (approved by the NGO) to help them with their daily tasks.
3. The Puzzle section includes several games designed to keep the mind active.
4. Personal safety was an important feature on the team's app too, which lead them to include a small device allowing the elderly person or a caretaker to create reminders which would be voiced out loud by the gadget at a specific point in time, including reminders to take pills or to switch off the oven after cooking lunch.

Plans are in the pipeline for the Vodafone Malta Foundation to collaborate further with the winning team to bring this incredible and innovative app to life, for elderly people to freely make use of it. Way to go guys!