By Sifa Ndemo

The Peer Educators and Counselors Club (PECC) held a Hackathon on March 15, in collaboration with the School of Science and Technology’s Electoral College. The event commenced with welcome remarks from Ms. Debbie and the teams were then ushered into a brainstorming session. The event fostered collaboration and interaction between students and PECC by providing a platform for the exchange of brilliant ideas. Students from various disciplines were grouped into teams of four people per group and challenged to collaborate, create synergy, and above all develop an innovative solution to a problem statement.

By bringing together minds from diverse backgrounds, the hackathon managed to facilitate the development of effective solutions to issues surrounding mental health. The basic format of the event involved participants tackling one of the three carefully curated problem statements, each highlighting a unique aspect of mental health. The problem statements were to propose solutions that seamlessly integrate mental health practices (i.e. mindfulness, stress management) into people’s daily routines, propose solutions to address social isolation and loneliness through digital platforms or technologies that foster connection, and develop initiatives that empower local communities to take an active role in promoting mental health awareness. Their task was to devise creative and practical solutions that can make a real impact on the well-being as individuals. All the teams outdid themselves and created solutions ranging from apps to websites. These solutions were pitched to a panel of judges who then deliberated on the most outstanding solution. The top three solutions were Zenflow, Bloom Together and Therapy Verse.