About 750 students from 31 African and European countries participated in the online hackathon to discuss and solve innovations and modern solutions in the food industry.
19 Ukrainian teams (in the top three in terms of the number of participants) worked together with students from Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Slovakia, Latvia and Albania.
Educational institutions of the Lviv Region, which are participants in the Junior Achievement Ukraine educational programs, took part in the international competition:
– IT College of NU “Lviv Polytechnic”;
– Lviv VPU of Trade and Services;
– Lyceum No. 46 named after V. Chornovola LMR;
– Lyceum of International Relations named after V. Stusa;
– Boryn Vocational Lyceum of Folk Crafts and Handicrafts.
The combined Ukrainian-Kenyan Golden Seeds team, which entered the TOP-10 of the competition, decided to research and present the idea of water resources management. This problem is relevant not only for African countries, but also for southern Ukraine. Because after the Russians blew up the Kakhovskaya HPP, there is an acute issue of irrigation of agricultural lands.
“We decided to focus on water management, given the impact of climate change, which leads to unpredictable weather conditions, reduced rainfall and prolonged droughts. These changes especially affect small farms that depend on rainfall,” said students from the Boryn Vocational Lyceum of Folk Crafts and Crafts. – “We propose the implementation of a solar digital automated drip irrigation system that works on solar batteries. This system will significantly reduce energy and water production costs, minimize fertilizer losses and reduce pollution caused by flood irrigation. Our goal is to provide farmers with the opportunity to grow food throughout the year, which will help stabilize prices for products in the district market,” says the video presentation of the project, which can be viewed at this link:
The jury liked the idea, and the team made it to the TOP-10 projects, however, unfortunately, it was not possible to take the first place. The winner of the competition this year was a team from Greece and Ghana called Vefiber. The idea behind their project is to make fabric from coffee grounds. At the same time, it is proposed to import coffee grounds from Ghana and Ethiopia (from cafes, coffee processing enterprises, etc.), and to manufacture the fabric itself in Greece.
Certificate:
Foodathone 2023 is an opportunity for young people aged 15 to 18 to join international teams with students from other countries to innovate and create solutions that will shape the future of the food industry. This year, all projects were divided into three areas: “Healthy nutrition”, “Soil fertility” and “Sustainable management of water resources”.
Junior Achievement Ukraine is a non-profit public organization, a provider of educational programs on entrepreneurship and financial literacy for young people. The organization is part of the worldwide Junior Achievement network, which has been operating since 1919 in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to prepare young people for the labor market, career and personal development.
The public organization Junior Achievement Ukraine was created in October 2021. The first participants in its educational programs and trainings were students and teachers of institutions in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions. After a full-scale invasion, the program started in Lviv and Chernivtsi regions from September 2022.
From September 2023, there was an expansion to 8 new regions – Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Poltava, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Kyiv – and the resumption of activities in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.