The first ever IDF Europe Hackathon was held in Brussels, Belgium from October 14-16 2022. Twenty-five alumni from the Youth Leadership Camps and Youth Leadership Labs over the last 10 years, travelled to Brussels from 17 different countries to participate in the Hackathon for a weekend of collaboration and idea generation on the theme of the Blue Circle – the universal symbol for diabetes.
YOURAH was established six years ago, to be a European network of diabetes youth advocates working together towards a common goal – a better life with diabetes for all. With this vision in mind, the first objective of the weekend was to create a space which would facilitate the sharing of expertise and experiences as well as relationship building among the alumni of YOURAH. In alignment with YOURAH’s mission, to connect young advocates within Europe and develop resources for the community, the second objective of the Hackathon was for ideas, concepts and projects to be initiated by the participants around the theme of the Blue Circle.
The energy over the weekend was tangible as groups not only worked tirelessly on their projects, but participated in a number of activities on the weekend’s programme coordinated by the organising committee. This entailed a variety of events ranging from art workshops, to team building exercises, to sporting activities. The programme also included inspirational presentations by three fantastic guest speakers. Laura Burlando from DeDoc Voices presented the Diaversary project, Kamil Armacki (Nerdabetic) delivered a workshop on running diabetes events online and offline, and Jaivir Pall, from Harbr Ventures, presented Design Thinking.
The weekend concluded with presentations by the four groups on their projects which since the Hackathon, have already been presented at the IDF board meeting on October 24. The groups are continuing to collaborate and work on their projects as they work on bringing their projects from a minimal viable product to fruition so that those living with and affected by diabetes can #UniteForDiabetes through the Blue Circle pin or logo.
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We thank our partners, FEND, Lilly Diabetes and Medtronic, for their support to the IDF Europe Youth Programme.
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