Technovation Challenge Moldova

In the last three months, I have kept quite busy on the local and national level implementing a thing called Technovation Challenge.  An entrepreneurial initative for girls, the 12-week curriculum teaches them how to solve problems in their communities by utilizing technology.  Girls develop a solution to the identified problem, a web-based application prototype, and a business model.

As I mentioned before, I have been working closely with a team in our town (another team dropped out at the beginning).  The girls worked every week for 4 hours or more on their application and business plan.   At times, they were tired of the work and the challenges of creating the app and writing down all the details of a business plan.  For a while, all they wanted to do was quit.  But they stuck it out and in the end, they succeeded! 

Here you see them laughing so hard that they're crying (from reviewing their practice round of a video presentation).

The team visited the raion council vice president to present their idea of their app as it relates to the city.

The problem the team identified in my community was the lack of clear and consistent communication of what is going on in our town.  People hear about events (public administration meetings, cultural events, school news, etc.) often times after they happen or only through word-of-mouth. News of activities around town travels slow or it travels very last-minute if at all.  Our team's app sought to fix this problem by creating a community events app, where you could find all information of events in one place.  No such app exists in Moldova, and I encouraged them to dream big with their app.  Their business plan included expansion into other cities in Moldova.

Advanced Hack Day
A month ago, we had a nationwide Advanced Hack Day where girls in the Technovation Challenge program were given an opportunity to present their draft app prototypes and receive some constructive feedback.  Six teams gathered in Chisinau and pitched their ideas to 1-2 mentors for 5 minutes.  Then they had a couple minutes to receive feedback and ask any questions of the mentors.  After this, they were given a tour and pizza party at FusionWorks, a thriving IT company in Chisinau.

Technovation Challenge girls in Moldova who participated in Hack Day.

From a community-supported blood donation app to rural water quality testing and reviews, teams of girls in the program have a lot of interesting, innovative ideas on how to put app's to good use in Moldova!

After the Hack Day, girls had three more weeks to complete their projects.  Each team submitted their projects virtually to enter into the global competition.   The final deliverables they had to create were a Demo Video, a Pitch Video, source code of their app, a business plan, and a presentation slide deck.

Live Pitch Day
To raise the excitement level and to award a winner within Moldova, we had a separate Moldova Pitch Day on May 3.  You can watch the entire event online here!

  

This is some Moldovan chic for you!  These ladies from Team Nanda (mentor Lindsey in the back!) got second place at the Pitch event!

Finally, check out this summary video of Technovation Challenge Moldova.  "We're killin' it with Technovation Challenge Moldova!..."  I am so thankful that we launched this initiative this year in Moldova.  I am also grateful for all those Moldovan leaders who also decided that it was a worthwhile program and took the time to invest in the program.  Hopefully, Technovation will continue into future years!  Girls get the opportunity to learn, grow, and dream about how they can impact their communities and prepare for a career geared toward innovation.