STARS OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION - Creative Superideas Hackathon
2025-02-18 20:25:07
TiranaPost
The “Challenge” hackathon was held on February 10, 12 and 13 as part of the “Skills Upload Junior” program, an initiative of the Vodafone Foundation Group. The goal of this hackathon is to encourage young people aged 12-18 to develop ideas to solve the social problems they face today, through innovation and technology.
This project, a collaboration between the Vodafone Foundation, with the “Skills Upload Junior” program, and the British Council, with the “Alternative Pathways” project, was implemented in three main centers of northern Albania: Dibër (Peshkopi, Mat, Bulqizë, Klos), Kukës (Has, Tropojë) and the Malësia e Madhe Zone (Koplik, Gruemirë, Kastrat). 215 children from these cities aged 12-18 and 86 teachers from 47 9-year and high schools are benefiting from a year of training in the disciplines of coding, microbite, hardwine, and STEM.
"Together we can" means that humanity and technology must come together. That is why today we have brought together very powerful names such as: Vodafone Foundation, British Council and British Embassy. Children from the North, South, Northeast - have the same opportunities to follow the pace of development of society and take advantage of the endless opportunities that technology offers. Where there is no road, doctor, students, school, technology can go and everyone can receive services such as education, medicine and many other public services through technology within a few seconds", said Jonida Lakuriqi, Director of Legal Affairs, Public Policy and External Affairs at Vodafone Albania, at the same time Chairwoman of the Board of Vodafone Foundation in Albania, who was very enthusiastic about the innovative projects and ideas of young people.
Participants presented the problems they face every day, ranging from manual processes on farms to the concerns their villages and cities face from climate change and extremely fast-paced development. The winning ideas thrilled all participants with the spirit of cooperation they conveyed, the love for nature and the high social consciousness to which they had given innovative, very practical solutions that are easily feasible.
The Bishopric opened the hackathon that continued with two other events in the cities of Kukës and Malesia e Madhe. The closing event will take place in Tirana and the winning school will represent Albania on March 17-18 at the Foundation European Showcase, in Bucharest, among 8 winning schools from European countries, thus offering a unique experience of exchanging ideas and practices, together with the winners from 8 schools from European countries.
The “Skills Upload Junior Challenge” project has been implemented since 2021 in 8 European countries and has involved around 7.5 million students and 600 thousand teachers, who have directly benefited from the program, as well as 8.2 million people, families, relatives of these students and teachers.
