The Federation of African Medical Students Associations (FAMSA) and Futurize are announcing a strategic partnership to solve major public health challenges in Africa through a brand-new initiative, the 2024 Pan-African Digital Health and Innovation Challenge, dubbed AfroHack ‘24. Both organizations seek to support young Africans to generate innovative ideas and technology that could evolve healthcare delivery in Africa.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, a large proportion of people living within Africa are below the age of 25. In a world where many African countries are grappling with high rates of poor health outcomes like high maternal mortality and high HIV transmission rates, young Africans are often misperceived to be observers without agency rather than actors with the potential to actively participate in solving these issues. Through this initiative, we aim to counter this inaccurate narrative.
Spearheaded by FAMSA Vice President and Lead Organizer, Victor Femi-Lawal, as well as Hackathon Co-Chairs, Stephen Igwe and Adetayo Adetokun, and Programs and Communication Leads, Olaoluwaposi Ogunlana and Temilola Aderemi, the 2024 Pan-African Digital Health and Innovation Challenge will involve teams of 3 to 5 university students and early career professionals from across Africa in a 72-hour hackathon. The hackathon offers young people the opportunity to brainstorm and develop creative solutions to specific problems within their communities. The hackathon will be held virtually, between the 21st and 24th of November, 2024. Innovative ideas across subject areas such as maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and vaccine preventable diseases will be supported.
About Futurize
Futurize designs and delivers innovation & venture-building programs and help businesses and universities accelerate technology to meet their innovation goals. Futurize is trusted by global top-tier universities to provide young people a platform to build their ventures. The company works with industry-leading companies in healthcare, renewable energies & tech.
About FAMSA
FAMSA is an independent, non-political federation of medical students’ associations in Africa. As a project-oriented organization, FAMSA is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Union (AU) as the official international forum of African medical students. FAMSA’s vision is to become a strong network of medical students, aware of global health issues and responsive to the current questions facing the medical profession and global health. A key objective is to enhance and broaden the general and special education of member medical students in and about various parts of Africa, and thus to contribute to the improvement of medical education and healthcare outcomes in Africa.