Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling on engineers, designers, the scientific and innovation community, persons with disabilities, humanitarians, manufacturers, investors and entrepreneurs to join forces in the ‘Enable Makeathon’ to develop affordable solutions for challenges faced by persons with disabilities in rural areas.

The Enable Makeathon is a 60-day programme taking place between November 2015 and January 2016. It is composed of an ‘Online Track’ for teams from all around the world and an ‘Onsite Track’ with a series of events in Bengaluru, India. Teams will work towards finding innovative solutions to nine challenges that would ultimately result in one or all of the following desired results:

  • Improving individual autonomy of persons with physical disabilities
  • Improving the access to and quality of physical rehabilitation services
  • Adapting and using new technologies in a more effective manner

The solutions developed will take the form of early prototypes that effectively illustrate the functionality and potential look of a product, proving that the theory behind the idea actually works.

To ensure that the early prototypes can make it to the next level i.e. be developed further and mass produced for customers, the ICRC invites companies, manufacturers and investors to be part of the process.

This is a collaborative initiative of the ICRC and several partner institutions, including the Association of People with Disability India, Workbench Projects, Internet of Things (IoT) Bangalore, swissnex India, Dalberg Global Development Advisors, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Teams from around the world have until 31 October 2015 to apply here: www.enablemakeathon.org.

For further information on the event, please contact:
Andrina Beuggert, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 37 91

or visit our website: www.icrc.org / www.enablemakeathon.org

For media queries, please contact:
Neha Thakkar, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 3160 or +41 79 574 0636
Adebayo Olowo-Ake, ICRC New Delhi, tel: + 91 97 113 09561

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