"Silverlink: Your App at Any Age!" This is the winning idea of the "Youth4Older: Hackathon against loneliness”, recently held in Chisinau. The event was organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Moldova) in partnership with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Moldova, the Moldcell Foundation, and the Future Technologies Project funded by USAID, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Over 50 young IT specialists participated in the Hackathon, most of them students at the Technical University of Moldova, participants in startups, and professionals from other fields, who were guided by mentors to develop an application dedicated to older people, to help them be more digitally connected and combat loneliness.
The young people interacted with the older people present at the event, who shared firsthand the challenges they face.
Attending the opening of the event, Felicia Bechtoldt, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, mentioned that according to demographic forecasts, by 2040 generations over the age of 50 will constitute approximately half of the total population of the Republic of Moldova. According to the "Generations and Gender" Study (GGS), ageing is associated with a high level of loneliness. Approximately one-third of the population aged 60+ experiences a sense of loneliness, with older people being more exposed to depressive states compared to other age groups.
Karina Nersesyan, UNFPA Representative in the Republic of Moldova, said that Moldova is ageing, which is why it is imperative to identify solutions to connect older people to the realities of the modern world. Intergenerational dialogue with young people increases social cohesion and is beneficial to all. Support programs for active and healthy living at an advanced age are part of UNFPA's demographic resilience strategy.
In total, 10 teams guided by mentors participated in the Hackathon, working intensively on developing an IT prototype to support older people in alleviating feelings of loneliness.
The "Penguins" team impressed the jury with the best, innovative, applicable, cost-effective, and sustainable solution tailored to the needs of older people and won the grand prize of $15,000 for further development of the prototype.
The solution proposed by the winning team, "Silverlink," is a user-friendly, easy-to-use application designed specifically for older people to connect them with loved ones, help them rediscover their passions, and explore new interests. This is an Artificial Intelligence assistant for all people, which will also assist older persons with limited digital skills. According to the authors, the conversation between the user and the assistant takes place through voice messages; the assistant captures the user's words, converts them into text, transmits the text to the API, obtains a text response, and sends the response to the user in the form of a voice message read by the Artificial Intelligence assistant.
Among the important functionalities of this application are the possibility of sharing mood, uploading photos from activities, access to local news, and the ability to have conversations with loved ones.
"We, from the Future Technologies Project, funded by USAID, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, are happy to support young people in developing innovative solutions that, on the one hand, connect generations and, on the other hand, help older persons not to feel socially isolated," mentioned Doina Nistor, director of the Future Technologies Project.
"This hackathon brings together two main areas of activity of the Moldcell Foundation: digital inclusion of older persons and creative tech development. Our partnership in this event exemplifies how we integrate these directions, where young innovators leverage their creativity and technological expertise to develop solutions that directly contribute to the digital inclusion of older persons for active and healthy aging," added Irina Strajescu, Executive Director of the Moldcell Foundation.
The "Silverlink" application for older people is set to be developed over the next 6 months and is part of the actions contributing to the implementation of the National Program for Active and Healthy Aging for 2023-2027, implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection with the support of UNFPA Moldova.
