Miyaheli – Social Innovation Camp provides Maldivian youth aged 18-30 years with the opportunity to turn their ideas into reality. Miyaheli aspires to create change from the grassroots up allowing individuals to take matters to their own hands and create change they seek for themselves. It aims to bring together youth, mentors and ideas to create both tech-based and non-tech based social innovations addressing pressing social issues, all in just one weekend.

The focus of this year’s Social Innovation Camp is to eliminate barriers faced by Persons with Disabilities (PWD) particularly in the areas of:

Miyaheli – Social Innovation Camp provides Maldivian youth aged 18-30 years with the opportunity to turn their ideas into reality. Miyaheli aspires to create change from the grassroots up allowing individuals to take matters to their own hands and create change they seek for themselves. It aims to bring together youth, mentors and ideas to create both tech-based and non-tech based social innovations addressing pressing social issues, all in just one weekend.

The focus of this year’s Social Innovation Camp is to eliminate barriers faced by Persons with Disabilities (PWD) particularly in the areas of:

- Physical/environment barriers

- Communication barriers

- Attitudinal barriers

PWD’s are considerably marginalized across the country with limited accessibility for transportation, public services, education, health and employment opportunities. With the growing entrepreneurship ecosystem in Maldives, the Maldivian youth including young people with disabilities, have tremendous potential to tackle the challenges faced by PWD’s through social entrepreneurship and innovation. In this regard, the Social Innovation Camp, Miyaheli, provides a unique platform for youth to work towards creating solutions to achieve an inclusive and accessible environment for all, while gaining entrepreneurial skills and mentorship to implement and sustain their ideas.

Miyaheli kickstarted on 29th August 2019 with introductory sessions on Social Entrepreneurship, Universal Design for Accessibility and Design Thinking for Social Innovation. Following these sessions, the participants pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and five ideas were selected out of which two were participants’ most popular choice. At the end of the camp, the teams made their final pitch and three winners were selected. The first-place winner was Team “ThaanaMello”, with the idea to develop an application to make Dhivehi content online accessible for the visually impaired community. Second place winner was Team “Silent Coffee” who aims to break the communication barrier between the deaf community & the hearing community by opening a Cafe where people can learn sign language to place their order. Third place went to Team “Salhi Kameh” to make beaches areas more inclusive and accessible to all through building of ramps and specialized chairs that would allow people with mobility issues to access the sea.

Miyaheli 2019 is a collaborative effort by UNDP Maldives, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, Ooredoo Maldives, Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services, Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment, Youth Co:Lab, Maldives Association of Persons with Disabilities, Maldives Deaf Association, Blind and Visually Impaired Society of Maldives and Wellness Association of Maldives.

PWD’s are considerably marginalized across the country with limited accessibility for transportation, public services, education, health and employment opportunities. With the growing entrepreneurship ecosystem in Maldives, the Maldivian youth including young people with disabilities, have tremendous potential to tackle the challenges faced by PWD’s through social entrepreneurship and innovation. In this regard, the Social Innovation Camp, Miyaheli, provides a unique platform for youth to work towards creating solutions to achieve an inclusive and accessible environment for all, while gaining entrepreneurial skills and mentorship to implement and sustain their ideas.

Miyaheli kickstarted on 29th August 2019 with introductory sessions on Social Entrepreneurship, Universal Design for Accessibility and Design Thinking for Social Innovation. Following these sessions, the participants pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and five ideas were selected out of which two were participants’ most popular choice. At the end of the camp, the teams made their final pitch and three winners were selected. The first-place winner was Team “ThaanaMello”, with the idea to develop an application to make Dhivehi content online accessible for the visually impaired community. Second place winner was Team “Silent Coffee” who aims to break the communication barrier between the deaf community & the hearing community by opening a Cafe where people can learn sign language to place their order. Third place went to Team “Salhi Kameh” to make beaches areas more inclusive and accessible to all through building of ramps and specialized chairs that would allow people with mobility issues to access the sea.

Miyaheli 2019 is a collaborative effort by UNDP Maldives, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, Ooredoo Maldives, Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services, Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment, Youth Co:Lab, Maldives Association of Persons with Disabilities, Maldives Deaf Association, Blind and Visually Impaired Society of Maldives and Wellness Association of Maldives.