A Reflection on Spacehack: The Refugee Journey
It’s been a couple months now, so this story is long overdue, but at least I’ve had plenty of time to collect my thoughts. Better late than never.
If you didn’t get spammed by us on Facebook already (sorry not sorry) and were not aware: on June 4th and 5th, as part of the Startup Europe Summit, we helped organize a hackathon called Spacehack: The Refugee Journey. The event was in partnership with Facebook, The European Commission, Factory, ReDI School and Techfugees. We flew in developers, architects, designers, makers, and other innovators for a 48 hour event to try and find solutions to space problems refugees often face along their journey from flight to integration.
It was a huge success in ways we couldn’t have even predicted …
24 Amazing Projects, 3 Big Winners
After 24 hours of hacking, a total of 200 attendees produced 24 projects addressing problems from sustainable housing, to translation services, to prosthetic 3D printed robotic limbs! A brief recap of each project is on the Spacehack website.
The teams pitched with nervous excitement for hours, and after one internet outage due to a lightning strike, our panel of judges decided on three winners:
First place went to a project called Bureaucrazy – an app for quickly filling out and printing German registration paperwork in your native language — and their large volunteer team. Bureaucrazy has gone on to be featured in several international news outlets, and it’s looking like their idea will not only come to fruition but be requested in several other European countries.
Second place went to Talk to Hadi, a unique smartphone app that seeks to provide psychological first aid to migrants — including instant telephone support. The team was led by a trained psychologist, proving you don’t have to be a developer to join a hackathon!
Third place went to RefStart, which promotes and helps female refugees’ integration by sharing their culture, as females are often one of the most overlooked groups who suffer the most from culture shock. The team has since taken its prototype home to Milan and is still actively working on developing it.
In addition to the winners, our partner Relayr gave a special award to Wallfarm for their concept to grow hydroponic produce in refugee homes and camps. And our partner Kontakt.io chose to give a prize to Ammarify, a beacon-enabled service to make the integration process better for migrants in their new country by sharing location-based stories.
No, Thank You!
It’s not easy to host such a big event. Plus, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed and make things perfect, and no event is without its minor road bumps. So we were very humbled by the positive feedback we got from our guests, and their forgiveness for the rough patches. Some guests even came away with world-changing opportunities…
Thank you again so much to you and your team from myself, from Eiman and from my new teammates.
I didn’t know what to expect but it was amazing, I learned so much, I never expected to place but I wanted to test the working method and our idea and we succeeded beyond my wildest dreams!
We have interest from several people working with or at UNHCR which was our true goal!
And the interaction with Jamalie, Luna, Assim, Ilke, and our own immigrant teammates was priceless to get input and radically evolved our ideas.
I will be presenting this information to some humanitarian groups back in the US, Eiman will do so in Spain, Seri our Korean teammate is now in Berlin meeting with some policy makers this week and will also be presenting our work! We will keep you updated!
Thank you again!
The Biggest Result: Hearts And Minds
One of the less measurable, but probably the most valuable, results from our hackathon was changing hearts and minds. I heard from a few people who were brave enough to admit it that they went into this event with trepidation. They knew it was wrong to feel this way, but couldn’t help it. They were unwitting victims of the media’s portrayal of refugees. Refugees are more often than not portrayed in media as dirty faceless masses, and this is a very damaging image. It gives people who would otherwise jump at the chance to help another human that second of hesitation that can mean the difference between action and inaction.
With the help of our wonderful partners at REDI School, we were able to put refugees at the same table as European citizens and show that there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. In fact, our staff was asked by several participants during the event to help them find a refugee to proof test their idea against, because it was impossible to tell who was a refugee and who was not.
And this is why the word “integration” was stressed so much during the course of the event and the word “refugee” was buried as much as possible. When you strip away the labels and hyperbolic media imagery and realize everyone there was happy, engaged, creative and friendly, you all just become people — hackers — working together to build something awesome.
The people I mentioned earlier came away from Spacehack feeling foolish for having been nervous in the first place, but it was a kind of positive shame that they felt, in that they were determined to be more open-minded going forward so they wouldn’t feel this way again.
And that’s one of the really cool things about a hackathon, I think. Regardless of the technological outcomes, the cramped timeline and open format force people to work together on a level playing field where the most creative ideas win. Yet, everyone comes away feeling inspired, accomplished, productive – and ultimately – exhausted.
I’d like to again thank our partners at Holzmarkt, Facebook, The European Commission, REDI School, Factory, Relayr, Planet Labs, Kontakt.io, Senic, Cisco, Twilio, Heroku, Fab Lab Berlin, Little Sun, Heureka, and Techfugees for making this event a reality, and I’m looking forward to seeing how we can continue this important mission of building amazing things and changing hearts and minds through space and technology.
