IMPACT STORY: Solar Entrepreneurs in a Backyard Workshop

By weaving together STEM education, community engagement, and youth innovation, we watched a community come together to build a better future.

Through Building Inclusive Peace in Sudan (BIPS) our partner STEM Sudan spent six months equipping young people, teachers, and communities in Damazin with practical STEM skills while encouraging them to work together to solve the challenges affecting their own communities, such as unemployment to building climate resilience. 

But we didn’t stop at the classroom. We hosted a regional Hackathon where young people designed technology-based solutions to local peace, health, and environmental challenges, like Bil-Afiya: an app for users to access virtual consultations, schedule appointments, and receive e-prescriptions remotely.  

From community-designed solar dryers and cookers to 7 groundbreaking peace-tech app prototypes, the innovation coming out of Damazin is real. On top of it, by providing targeted training for university students, fresh graduates, and secondary school students in media, robotics, and community journalism — we expanded public awareness around environmental and climate issues impacting their lives and how they can take action to turn things around.  

By bridging the gap between universities, tech hubs, and local schools, we laid the groundwork for long-term, sustainable collaboration to foster a culture where technology serves peace, not war. 

We are incredibly grateful for our partners, educators, and the incredible youth of Blue Nile State who are leading the way. The future is bright and it’s being built right here.