{"id":44646,"date":"2023-10-20T15:37:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/techfugees-hackathon-is-pretty-much-a-first-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:37:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:24","slug":"techfugees-hackathon-is-pretty-much-a-first-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/techfugees-hackathon-is-pretty-much-a-first-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Techfugees hackathon is \u201cpretty much a first\u201d – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sydney\u2019s tech community will come together for a special event aiming to come up with innovative ways to help refugees settle in Australia.<\/p>\n

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The Techfugees hackathon, inspired by a similar movement in Europe, will be a weekend-long hackathon aiming to bring together founders, entrepreneurs, investors and refugees to create new solutions to the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019ll be held in Western Sydney from November 28-29 and is sponsored by Settlement Services International (SSI), the largest not-for-profit humanitarian settlement organisation in Australia, and STARTTS, a not-for-profit providing psychological and counselling support for refugees in the country.<\/p>\n

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The event will be hosted by the Liverpool City Council and is being organised by Anne-Marie Elias, muru-D\u2019s Annie Parker and LanzaTech\u2019s Nicole Williamson.<\/p>\n

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Using tech for good<\/b><\/p>\n


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Elias says it\u2019s about showing the refugee community that those in tech care about them, and finding solutions quickly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to put these people together and make something really meaningful to show refugees that there\u2019s a wider community that actually gives a shit about them and how they settle here, and that want to make it as comfortable as we can,\u201d Elias tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n


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\u201cThey want to help, they want to roll up their sleeves and not wait for the government. They want to get out there and do it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s so heart-warming and incredible. No-one has taken the piss; no-one has uttered a word against it. People are excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the event, refugees from Sydney will be presenting to the participants, detailing the difficulties of settling in Australia and presenting some challenges.<\/p>\n

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\u201cInstead of us pitching the idea, we\u2019re getting the refugees pitching the problems and collaborating to find the solutions,\u201d Elias says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much a first.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s about talking to refugees that are already here about what kinds of things have made their lives easier and better, and what\u2019s enabled them to settle easier into Australian society.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with the refugees that are here, we\u2019re not weighing into any political argument. It\u2019s about asking once they\u2019re here, how do we support them?\u201d<\/p>\n

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From there it\u2019ll function like a traditional hackathon, with teams forming to solve the various issues, and eventually the final ideas will be presented to the judges.<\/p>\n

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The problems the tech people will be trying to assist with will include language acquisition, connecting with the community, housing support, and finding employees.<\/p>\n

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Coming up with sustainable solutions<\/b><\/p>\n


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Elias wants to make sure the entrepreneurs actually follow through with their ideas.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne of the things with hackathons that I get really frustrated with is that nothing really lands,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve approached SSI and they\u2019re sponsoring the prize, which is incubation to launch the winning idea. We\u2019re trying to build in a mechanism which includes the end user from the start, rather than just appearing in the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s also about finding tech-savvy and qualified refugees and encouraging them to get involved in Sydney\u2019s startup ecosystem, she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe always want to find programmers and developers among refugees and bring them in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf they want to have that career here there\u2019s no reason they can\u2019t if they have these networks \u2013 that\u2019s the main problem. They\u2019re highly qualified but they have no networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Working quickly<\/b><\/p>\n

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Elias worked for 30 years in the social services sector before attending her first tech hackathon last year. She says it was inspiring to see the community come together and produce results quicker than what she was used to.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were really shit at doing anything different \u2013 a lot of money was thrown at various issues but the results keep getting worse,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen there I was sitting in a room with people volunteering for the entire weekend, looking at completely new data sets and creating things in 48 hours. That blew me away.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI kept thinking about how to get the government more into this space to see what we can do to produce meaningful results.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really awesome because I come from a different world. I\u2019m trying to bring two worlds together so we can access this community of people to solve really big problems without it all being about the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Elias, the inaugural Techfugees hackathon next month is just the beginning.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019ll be the first of a series of social hacks,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe people that are charged with fixing these problems are failing, rapidly. We\u2019re seeing more socially-engineered, fantastic solutions from these hackathons than from the government.\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<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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