The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Africa Teen Geeks have established a partnership to host a hackathon at the end of July: #Hack4Justice.
Under the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative of UNODC, the #Hack4Justice hackathon will challenge African youth at the secondary school level to develop mobile and online games and apps dealing with crime issues in SA.
E4J - part of the Doha Declaration Global Programme - works to raise awareness and educate the public at primary, secondary and university levels about core UNODC-mandated areas: crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law.
At #Hack4Justice, the young participants will use their coding skills to teach people how to act as good citizens, steer clear of getting involved in criminal activities and avoid becoming victims of corruption or violence.
Africa Teen Geeks hosted its last hackathon #Hack4Health in June, where youth involved in Africa Teen Geeks' weekend coding class developed 14 app prototypes.
These included automated public hospitals admission and discharge systems, for emergency calls and other bottlenecks, aimed at reducing the amount of laborious red tape patients and staff routinely endure.
The hackathon was attended by deputy minister of the Presidency Buti Manamela, and national planning commission and Africa Teen Geeks ambassador Ndaba Mandela, highlighting the important work of the learners and the bright futures that await them if they keep developing their coding and computer science abilities, says Africa Teen Geeks.
"Technology is the key to the future. It is, therefore, imperative that our kids from the great continent of Africa are equipped and can stand tall and contribute to the global discussion now taking humanity further in the evolutionary process than ever before," said Mandela.
Africa Teen Geeks focuses on developing SA's children from underprivileged backgrounds into coding and technology experts.
"We are showing our children the power they have to make a change in their communities and the country by learning about coding and computer science," says Lindiwe Matlali, founder of Africa Teen Geeks.
"Many of our best coders come from extremely poor families who never touched a computer before joining our programme, yet today they are changing their communities, our country and now the world."
#Hack4Justice will follow Africa Teen Geeks' largest annual programme, Computer Science Week, when 12 000 of SA's youth will be hosted at UNISA campus computer labs across the country, introducing thousands of children to their first encounter with computers.
The Hack4Justice event takes place from 28 to 30 July. Send enquiries to info@africateengeeks.co.za.