On November 20-22, Devs Without Borders, in partnership with Free The Children, will host the Break Poverty Hackathon in Toronto. The event hopes to bring developers together to build tech solutions for education, business, and farming for people in developing countries.
During the hackathon, participants will learn what rural communities in Kenya need to maintain their livelihood, and have the option of building SMS, hardware, or mobile web solutions. According to Devs Without Borders, mobile subscriber growth rate in Africa is expected to double in the next four years, making mobile technology a highly accessible resource for people in rural regions.
Free The Children will help select the winning app that will be test-launched through their Adopt A Village program in rural Kenya, as well as provide International Aid case studies that will help developers understand the practical needs of the people they are empowering.
“As technologists, we tend to build tech solutions for the markets we know, but not the markets that need it most. Free The Children’s expertise will help educate developers on what people need around the world,” said Danielle Thé, founder of Devs Without Borders and its Break Poverty Hackathon. “Break Poverty Hackathon attendees will build technologies that aren’t just cool but immensely life-changing too.”
The event will be hosted at Bitmaker Labs in Toronto, and Kenyan attendees will be teleconferenced in as teams create projects from scratch with the help of mentors.
Developers can RSVP for the event here.