PadShare, a platform developed by a team in Uganda to grant better access to menstrual hygiene products for women in vulnerable situations, has won the first EU:Africa The Post Crisis Journey hackathon with the first prize of 20 000 €.

The international jury has selected the award winners in ten categories of the 72-hour  cross-continental online hackathon that aimed to tackle the socio-economic problems of Africa after the Covid-19 crisis.

The overall winnerPadSharewas also selected as the winner in the category of vulnerable populations. Sandra Awilli has been working on the idea since 2019, and finally at the hackathon she was able to find her team of developers and designers to come up with a clickable product. Overwhelmed by the success Awilli said: “You have no idea how many lives of young girls you have changed! Periods don’t stop at the pandemic. Period poverty is the biggest world solvable problem.” The project developed by a self-taught digital marketer emerged from personal experience: “In March 2019 I was in a very bad place mentally and financially. I didn't have an income, that week I got my period and I was confined to my house, I canceled two job interviews because I couldn't make it. I wished there was someone I could call to provide what I needed but I was too ashamed to ask and that is when I decided to work on a solution. I have been researching the concept ever since, I just didn't have the resources to start implementing.”

Jury member Mari Hanikat pointed out that the winner has thought through the concept thoroughly, something that is not usual during hackathons: “It is not just a sharing platform but also brings together donors - big corporations, that have a social responsibility program, and ensures a just distribution among those in need.”  

Of the 700 ideas proposed by 2300 participants 315 reached the hackathon and 260 demos were presented for the final pitch. The jury, Antony Rytel (GovTechPolska), Maria Luisa Ferreira (European Investment Bank), Lembit Loo (Europe-Africa D4D Hub and MFA Estonia), Peter Vesterbacka (Founder of Angry Birds), Paul Weber (Government of Luxembourg) and Mari Hanikat (CEO of Garage48), selected the winners from among the top 20 projects that included ideas and prototypes to solve social, health and educational issues as well as access to financial services and support to farmers and small businesses. The jury members had to consider the strength of the team, examine the prototype development process, the impact of the idea and the sustainability of the business model. 

The winner of the health track and overall second prize of 15 000€ went to Keza 3D game – a fun app to improve education on reproductive health developed by a team in Rwanda. The third prize of 10 000€ and award of the smart cities track was given to Ringolo, a platform to encourage and enable recycling and circular economy developed by a team from Ghana and Germany. The winner of the fourth prize of 5000€ and the e-governance track is TalkAmNaija, a social enterprise to develop democracy and better governance in Nigeria.

The 5thplace with the prize of 5000€ went to Safari Wallet, a tourism platform for small local businesses developed by a team in Tanzania. The winner of the food security track and overall 6thplace is team Zajka from Poland that has developed a hardware and app solution to help small farmers with better water management. Job security track winner and overall 10thplace is Umbrella Tree – a platform to empower African women in tech developed by a team from Estonia, Rwanda and Nigeria. Education award winner is OHMNI, a platform for distant learning developed by teachers in Cameroon, to enable learning even if students don’t have access to internet or electricity. Grey Armour (Uganda) won the cyber security and Big Data track, Kotani Pay (Kenya) won the financial services track. GotCash (Zimbabwe) won the track on digital economy – a platform that combines goats and blockchain. Each track winner received 3000€ to keep developing the product. The overall 7thprize of 2000€ went to the micro investment platform Ndovu from Kenya. The 8thprize (2000€) was awarded to a platform Rabar to help small farmers to easier sell their produce. The 9thprize (2000€) went to UBO, a platform and hardware solution to assist learning for autistic kids developed by a team in Tunisia. 

At theopeningof the hackathon president of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid expressed the hope that the first European-African unicorn might come from the event. Tony O. Elumelu(Chairman of the United Bank for Africa Group & Founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation) was hopeful that the pandemic will help to bridge the digital divide and encouraged the participants to forge lifelong partnerships. Aya Chebbi, Youth Envoy of the African Union reminded those who have access to the internet of their huge responsibility and of the empowerment of the online space for the young generation. 

The EU:Africa hackathon prize fund is 100 000 Euros. The most promising teams will receive an extensive follow-up mentoring and matchmaking program to bring their ideas into real life and hopefully breed the first European-African unicorn.Organizing the hackathon is co-funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia’s development cooperation fund, Finland, Ireland, Luxemburg, Poland and the European Investment Bank.

The online conference videos of the EU:Africa the Post Crisis Journey are available onFacebook.

The top 20 pitching video is availablehere.

Award ceremonyvideo.