Tikkun Olam Makers Makeathon at ACS

In March 2019 the American College of Sofia hosted the Third Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM) Makeathon at its Student Computer Innovation & Fabrication Institute (SCIFI). The 72-hour challenge brought together need-knowers - people with special abilities - and makers – designers, engineers and handy people to come up with prototypes to technological solutions for problems that people with special needs meet every day.

The Opening Ceremony of the Third TOM Bulgaria Makeathon, took place in the Whitaker Auditorium at the American College of Sofia and was attended by Dr. Richard Tucker Ewing Jr., President of the American College of Sofia, H. E. Irit Lillian, Ambassador of the State of Israel and H.E. Eric Rubin, Ambassador of the United States of America, the TOM Bulgaria team of volunteers, participants and members of the ACS community (see https://www.acs.bg/news/the-american-college-of-sofia-is-hosting-the-third-tom-makeathon/). More than a hundred participants took part in the makeathon.

TOM 3 was organised by the TOM Bulgaria team and ACS and many other partners. The DSLL team was one of the main organisers of this third TOM makeathon hosted at ACS.

You can see of the key moments of this truly inspiring event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3KZkcvt5Do. Where it all started and what all participants jointly achieved in only 72 hours.

Tikkun Olam means (roughly) 'try to improve or repair the world'. You can't fix the world in 72 hours but you can sometimes hack it and make it better and change someone's life forever :)

The amazing black and white photographs above were taken during the event by Phelia Barouh (https://pheliabarouh.com/) - a photographer and curator based in Sofia, Bulgaria.