{"id":43139,"date":"2023-10-20T15:26:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/techfugees-just-the-start-of-hacking-for-social-change-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:26:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:26:25","slug":"techfugees-just-the-start-of-hacking-for-social-change-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/techfugees-just-the-start-of-hacking-for-social-change-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Techfugees just the start of \u201chacking for social change\u201d – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Sydney tech and startup community has come together to try to make settling in Australia easier, in an \u201cunprecedented\u201d show of support for refugees.<\/p>\n

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The Techfugees hackathon<\/a>, hosted by Liverpool Council in the city\u2019s library, saw about 150 founders, entrepreneurs, developers and investors team up with NGOs and refugees to develop numerous ideas and startups to help with this issue.<\/p>\n

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The event was organised by Annie-Marie Elias, muru-D\u2019s Annie Parker and LanzaTech\u2019s Nicole Williamson and sponsored by Settlement Services International and STARTTS.<\/p>\n

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It was a \u201cmagical\u201d and very powerful weekend, Elias tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n


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\u201cThe generosity of these people is just crazy and unprecedented \u2013 it\u2019s second to none,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re so capable and achieving massive goals in their own world, but there\u2019s so much need out there. All you have to do is tap them on the shoulder and they\u2019re there.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe magic was bringing together the tech and startup community with the people affected by this issue.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt planted a seed in the community, local council and NGOs that they can help refugees in a way that\u2019s better than waiting around for the government to sort this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A new narrative<\/b><\/p>\n


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The weekend began with refugees describing the various problems they faced when trying to settle in Australia and groups then forming to tackle these issues with a tech solution. The refugees mentored and collaborated with each group.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey were so passionate and so happy that people cared,\u201d Elias says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhatever narrative they hear about refugees, now they have seen a different one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The winning idea from the hackathon was Goalify, an online platform to help refugees and case workers set goals for what they want to achieve, and then connect them with the means and information to do so, as well as sending reminders.<\/p>\n

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The team behind the idea will now receive $10,000 to incubate the idea to launch and mentoring from Pollenizer and Expert360.<\/p>\n

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Other ideas included a means to connect people with refugees in the community through food, a document and conversations translation service, a social network for learning English and an app to curate local business and services for refugees \u2013 an idea that has already been backed by Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun and will be launched in the area soon.<\/p>\n

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Just the beginning<\/b><\/p>\n


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Buoyed by the success of Techfugees, Elias wants to create a national movement of using tech and startup skills for good.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy mission in life is to hack for social change,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have to generate a series of hacks for social change.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The trio are already looking to hold a similar Techfugees event in Melbourne and another in Sydney focusing on refugee women and girls, and they\u2019re also looking to tackle other crucial issues.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDomestic violence is something I think that we can solve differently,\u201d Elias says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese tipping point problems that the government is really not cutting it with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The group wants the government to get on board with these initiatives too, on the back of its inaugural Policy Hack.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s the way forward and we have to get the government to see it this way,\u201d Elias says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for permission but for them to join us. That\u2019ll achieve more than what they\u2019re doing now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe government and NGOs alone just can\u2019t do it, we have to bring communities together and leverage the capacity of tech and startups.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll of us together can get shit done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sydney tech and startup community has come together to try to make settling in Australia easier, in an \u201cunprecedented\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}