The Innovating for Inclusive and Sustainable Development with Blockchain hackathon was a collaborative event organized by Zone01 Kisumu, LakeHub, and KIEP-SKIES aimed at fostering creativity and technological innovation to address pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. Our apprentices were expected to work in teams and at the end of three days, develop solutions that contribute to inclusive growth and sustainable development in various sectors.

We were joined by tech guru Samson Obambo who offered the teams much needed guidance on the technical aspects (code), Benson Abila, Founder and CEO of M-taka and Homeless of Kisumu, Primafacie M., a Tech Enthusiast and Urban Planner as well as COO of M-taka, and Martin Deporres Odera, Founder and Director of Duke Waste Management Services Enterprises and Biz Afrique Enterprises, Dr. Marcia Obondi and Hellen Ooro, both doctors at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital. We cannot thank our mentors enough for guiding the teams through their ideation process.

Our judging panel - Caleb Nyoiro, Benson Abila, Dorcas Owinoh, Stacy Dina, and Paul Oguda - had the unenviable task of evaluating 19 potentially transformative ideas. The competition was fair but fierce. When the dust settled, but a few teams truly stood out with their exceptional solutions.

The Objective of the Hackathon was to:

- To inspire innovative solutions that tackle real-world problems and promote sustainable development.

- To provide a platform for collaboration among apprentices, designers, entrepreneurs, and community members.

- To encourage the creation of technologies that enhance the quality of life in urban and rural communities.To promote digital literacy, economic empowerment, and health and wellness through technology.

These are some of the solutions that came out of our hackathon.

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CRYPTOCATALYST

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MWALIMU CONNECT

MwalimuConnect is a pioneering web application developed in Go designed to address the critical challenges of education and digital literacy in Kenya. The platform serves as a peer-to-peer tutoring hub, connecting educators ("Mwalimu" in Swahili) with students across the country. It utilizes Go's powerful APIs to ensure efficient real-time communication between tutors and learners, facilitating personalized and effective educational interactions.

JIFUNZE

Jifunze aims to create an innovative e-learning platform that securely tracks users' course progress using blockchain technology. The platform combines React for the frontend and a robust Go backend to ensure a seamless and secure user experience.

WASTE ECO-TRACK

The Waste EcoTrack team, is addressing key issues inthe waste management industry, such as inefficiencies and lack of transparency,through a blockchain-based solution. This system aims to improve transparency,efficiency, and prevent fraud by using a decentralized, immutable ledger totrack waste management activities. The platform leverages smart contracts forautomating waste disposal processes, real-time tracking, and ensures alltransactions are verifiable and tamper-proof. While facing challenges likescalability, cost, and complexity, the project plans to begin with a pilotphase, evaluate and adjust based on results, and gradually scale up. Theanticipated outcomes include better waste management transparency, reducedfraud, improved data quality, and broader environmental, economic, and socialbenefits. Next steps involve finalizing the design, development, testing, andstakeholder engagement to ensure a successful deployment and optimization ofthe system.

‍P2P INNOVATORS

The purpose of this project is to create the Decentralized Peer to Peer Lending Platform for borrowing and lending money from and to other people by incorporating the blockchain technique. This platform seeks to enable safe and efficient loan consolidation procedures directly between people hence
empowering the economic growth and business in Africa.

BIZ-BOOST

BiasharaID is an innovative blockchain-based digital identity verification system designed to empower Kenyan entrepreneurs by providing them with a secure, digital identity. This identity enables seamless and secure access to financial services, fostering inclusive growth and economic empowerment. BiasharaID leverages cutting-edge blockchain technology to create a secure digital identity for entrepreneurs. The platform offers an efficient, reliable, and secure method for identity verification, ensuring that entrepreneurs can access the financial services they need without unnecessary delays or risk of fraud.

EDU-CRED

Fraudulent acquisition and possession of academic certificates make it difficult to verify the authenticity of an individual’s academic credentials. Leveraging the security and decentralization of blockchain technology to make it easier to access and verify academic credentials of individuals, Edu-Cred will help stakeholders such as employers perform proper background checks without compromising the integrity of academic credentials.

‍CARBOCRED

CarboCred operates as a blockchain-powered marketplace where users can register their carbon credits, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of each credit to eliminate fraud. The platform offers educational resources and personalized recommendations to help users understand the benefits of carbon credits and how to generate them. Key features include a user-friendly interface, real-time tracking of carbon credits, secure transactions, and comprehensive support throughout the carbon credit lifecycle.

ECO-FARM

Kenyan smallholder farmers face challenges in accessing fair markets for their produce and inputs due to intermediaries, lack of transparency, and insecure transactions. We are creating a decentralized marketplace leveraging blockchain technology for secure transactions and Go APIs for user interactions. This platform will enable farmers to buy inputs and sell produce directly to consumers and businesses, ensuring fair prices and reducing intermediary interference.

REMO-HEAL

In Kenya, access to healthcare is limited due to geographical, economic, and infrastructural barriers. This leads to delayed medical interventions, poor health outcomes, and increased mortality rates, especially in rural areas. Traditional healthcare systems struggle to provide continuous monitoring and timely medical attention to patients with chronic conditions. RemoHeal aims to bridge this gap by creating a remote patient monitoring system that leverages Go APIs and blockchain technology for secure data transmission and storage. RemoApp will collect health data from wearable devices and Community Health Promoters, allowing doctors to monitor patients remotely, providing timely interventions and improving overall health outcomes.

‍TIBA TECH
TibaTech is a Digital Referral System designed to streamline and enhance the referral process. Our system leverages modern technology to provide a seamless, transparent, and efficient platform for managing referrals. It automates referral tracking, simplifies the referral process for users, and provides real-time insights into referral performance.

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SAFARIS

Small and medium-sized business owners face significant challenges in finding reliable, safe and affordable transportation for their goods between markets. The existing options are often inefficient, expensive, and lack transparency. We are developing a web-based platform built using Go language and blockchain technology to connect business owners with drivers who can transport their goods from market to market. Our solution aims to provide a secure, transparent, and cost-effective way for businesses to find suitable drivers, based on their routes, ratings, and pricing. Additionally, our platform supports ride-sharing, allowing multiple businesses to share transportation costs.

AGRIMENTOR

Farmers in Kenya face numerous challenges, including unpredictable weather, pest infestations, and volatile market conditions. They often lack access to real-time, reliable advice tailored to their specific needs and local climate conditions. Existing solutions are fragmented, making it difficult for farmers to obtain cohesive and actionable information. Agri-Mentor is an AI-driven decision support system that provides Kenyan farmers with personalized, real-time agricultural advice. By utilizing Go APIs and blockchain technology, the platform offers tailored recommendations on crop management, pest control, and market trends, ensuring data security and accessibility.

MAJIPULSE

Major towns in Kenya face three critical water supply problems that hinder water sustainability and limit residents' access to quality water. MajiPulse is a Smart Water Management Web Application System that leverages blockchain and IoT technologies to address these issues by Providing real-time data on water flow rates to track water usage, detecting leakages to reduce water wastage, enhancing fair distribution of water, preventing contamination of water and enabling consumers to check accurate billing rates against their water usage.

TECH TITANS

Smallholder farmers in East Africa struggle with managing their agricultural supply chains, lacking transparency and efficiency. Kilimo-Chain, is a web application using blockchain technology that allows farmers and cooperatives to manage transactions and visualize the supply chain.

‍TESSA-FINBRIDGE 

Tessa is a decentralized system that uses blockchain technology to ensure secure and transparent connection of lenders and borrowers. Using blockchain as one of its core technologies, the platform guarantees that all transactions made are securely stored in a tamper-proof ledger to serve a secure and auditable data source for each financial deal. This boosts the general trust of the loan process, minimizing frauds and making users rely on loans again.

‍ARDHI CHAIN

‍Ardhichain is an innovative blockchain-based platform designed to transform the urban land registry system in Africa. By leveraging the transparency and security of blockchain technology, Ardhichain provides an immutable, tamper-proof record of land ownership, significantly reducing disputes, fraud, and inefficiencies inherent in traditional paper-based registries. Our platform employs smart contracts to automate the verification and transfer of land titles, streamlining processes and cutting costs.

‍ALPHA BETA

Emerging from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, managing the lifecycle of vaccines—from manufacturing to administration—presents significant challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Kenya. The absence of a unified, tamper-proof system in existing solutions has meant that governments, donors, health facilities, and patients must deal with issues of vaccine authenticity, accountability and auditability, inefficient inventory management and overall efficacy. Alpha-Beta addresses these challenges by leveraging blockchain technology to build a transparent, accountable, and efficient vaccine tracking system. Inspired by the CDC Vaccine Tracking System (VTrckS), Alpha-Beta integrates the vaccine supply chain into a secure, web-based app built in Go.

AFYA CHAIN

AfyaChain is a blockchain-based Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Health Management Information System (HMIS) designed to address the critical inefficiencies in Kenya's healthcare system. By creating a secure, interoperable, decentralized, and immutable ledger for patient data, AfyaChain aims to enhance data accessibility, security, and continuity of care across healthcare facilities.

Congratulations to everyone!