Young innovators from North Macedonia win at the World Bank’s Ideas4Action Competition
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The World Bank and the Zicklin Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business announced the winners of their global competition Ideas4Action.
One of the seven winners, competing among 4 000 teams, is the youth team Something Atypical, which participated at the Generation Unlimited National Youth Challenge, part of the partnership between Foundation Telekom for Macedonia and UNICEF.
Their innovative solution is the mobile application Walkiie, which enables families and friends of persons with disabilities to connect with volunteers who organize social activities for these people.
“We are so happy with the success that we achieved; this is not just our personal success – it is a success for the whole country. We are grateful for the opportunity and the support we received; what we are most excited about is seeing the application really help persons with disabilities”, said Elena Bozhinovska, member of the Something Atypical team.
The Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge invited young innovators through a public call to create innovative solutions in response to the question “How can digital technology contribute to more active inclusion of children and youth in education and in everyday life”? Besides financial assistance, the teams also received mentoring support by engineers, IT, and marketing specialists.
“It was indeed an honor to work with this team of young people who are volunteers themselves and clearly identified the need for this application that will make a difference in the quality of life for people with disabilities”, said Boro Petkoski of Makedonski Telekom, mentor of the Something Atypical team.
This is a second major recognition for young teams under the Digital Inclusion initiative. Recently the e-Bionics team won at the Generation Unlimited 2019/2020 Global Youth Challenge, in the category of teams under the age of 18. Their solution VenusArm е is a 3D-printed bionic arm for persons with arm or hand deficiencies.
About the Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge in North Macedonia
In our country, the National Youth Challenge is part of the partnership between UNICEF and Foundation Telekom for Macedonia, implemented by the SmartUp Social Innovation Lab with local support from the Scouts Association. Young people were invited through a public call to create innovative solutions in response the question “How can digital technology contribute to more active inclusion of children and youth in education and in everyday life”? Successful candidates were invited to take part in workshops to develop their ideas, and the five most promosing ideas were awarded 1000 USD each, as well as mentoring support to execute the projects. Two teams were selected to take part in the Global Challenge. To find out more about Generation Unlimited in North Macedonia, visit https://www.genunlimited.mk/.
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