The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and RTI International, through its partner Villgro Philippines, has named the winners of a virtual hackathon to find new solutions to long-standing family planning (FP) and teen pregnancy challenges.
The winning team Aster Alliance was awarded PHP1.5 million (US$31,200) in award subsidy while runner-up teams Yaka.ph and Edukasyon.ph received PHP750,000 (US$15,600) each.
Twenty-one participating teams went through the various stages of design thinking to ideate and create prototype solutions. Over the course of 48 hours, the teams took turns meeting 20 innovation mentors, refining their ideas, and developing their pitch to win.
“Teenage pregnancy rate in the Philippines remains high and the pandemic has made it more difficult for Filipino women and girls to access FP information, commodities, and services. This is a great time to create new, innovative solutions to address these issues,” said USAID/Philippines Office of Health Director Michelle Lang-Alli in her event opening message.
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Aster Alliance, formed by four engineering students from the University of the Philippines, is a direct-to-consumer adolescent and youth reproductive health platform that enabled smarter family planning.
Yaka.ph is a unified platform for reproductive health tracking, online counselling and prescription deliveries, while Edukasyon.ph utilises a personalised Artificial Intelligence chatbot and study materials to address the lack of sexual and reproductive health education among youths.
In addition to closing a Series A funding round, Edukasyon.ph has recently named Grace David as its new CEO.
The winners will receive three months of incubation support from Villgro Philippines to help develop the innovations and connect with partners who can lend further support.
“We were thrilled by the innovations we witnessed unfold during the Innovation Challenge hackathon. We look forward to working with the winners to further refine and develop their solutions over the next three months,” said Priya Thachadi, Co-founder & CEO of Villgro Philippines.
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Image Credit: Joey Pilgrim on Unsplash
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