NIMJN organized the ‘Nepal Journathon on COVID-19’ virtually on February 18, 2021. Nepal Journathan is a one-day hackathon event that brought together journalists, health professionals, coders, designers, tech activists, and developers to find and create long-term solutions to the current challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic response in Nepal. 

The event aimed to bring the multidisciplinary team together to identify and discuss the problems and to come up with an effective solution related to the Covid pandemic or other emerging health problems facing the country. 

The selection process details of this event are as follows:

• A total of 25 participants connected via email and were divided into five groups called  Team Daffe, Team COVID Fighter, Team PARK, Team COVID Help Network, and Team Ullus. 
• The teams then discussed and worked on their ideas virtually before the event date. 
• The selection team was comprised of Dr. Ramu Kharel, Mr.  Rajneesh Bhandari, and Ms. Sharada Gyawali
• A development specialist selected the top three ideas based on feasibility, implementability, innovativeness, importance in the context of Nepal, and the quality of the presentation. 
• The top three ideas were awarded Nrs 50,000, Nrs 30,000, and 20,000 respectively to finalize their project ideas. 
• This event was supported by the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, and Humanity United. The National Newspaper Himalayan Times and the online news platform Onlinekhabar.com covered the Journathon event.

 The links to these published stories can be found below: https://thehimalayantimes.com/science-and-tech/covid-fighter-app-wins-2021-nepal-journathon-prize | https://english.onlinekhabar.com/journathon-awards-innovative-solutions-for-nepals-pandemic-response.html?