At Synamedia, our mission is to transform the way the world is entertained and informed. But when it comes to social responsibility, we believe that we can positively impact many walks of life. It is because of this belief that we enthusiastically support a terrific organization called Carmel 6000.
They really are changing the world.
Who is Carmel 6000?
Part of the Hilma ‘Hi-tech for impact’ group founded by our very own Yossi Tsuria (co-founder of NDC & NDS and now executive advisor at Synamedia), Carmel 6000 is an innovation hub that focuses on empowering young post-high school women to create social impact through hi-tech. These talented women work in teams to develop technological solutions for underserved populations that don’t usually benefit from the developments of the Hi-tech world.
For example, a reverse camera mounted on a wheelchair, allowing users to be aware of, and navigate around, obstacles behind them that they don’t see. When the developers showed the wheelchair to a mother of a wheelchair bound child. Her reaction was: “He can now use the wheelchair around the home without running over his little brothers” Or a hospital smart call system that prioritizes calls for assistance from bed-bound patients, based on their current state. In the pilot, this has shown to dramatically reduce load on staff and frustration on the part of the patients. Or an app that manages the extra logistics required to safely transport children with special needs to and from any destination.
The beauty of Carmel 6000 is not just in the innovations that we work on. It’s also the young women who have overcome social stereotypes by gaining the skills required to create these cool devices, programs, and applications.
Where Synamedia comes in
Our support for Carmel 6000 is both physical and educational. Synamedia provides Carmel 6000 with office space, meeting rooms, and dining facilities at our Jerusalem premises. We also equip each of the 25-30 young women with laptops, as well as any other hardware and software they need.
However, our most significant contribution to Carmel 6000 is not through financial support. It’s through our most valuable asset: our people.
I, together with many other volunteers from Synamedia’s technical teams, work alongside the Carmel 6000 women in their projects. With the help of Time2Give paid volunteering hours that Synamedia offers all employees, our staff can devote their time, teaching these talented young women networking skills along with coding and engineering. We learn the challenges, conceptualize creative solutions, and contribute to the development process.
As a software architect team leader at Synamedia, I find considerable satisfaction in addressing the needs of our valued customers. But the time that I spend at Carmel 6000 is, for me, equally gratifying.
If you are looking for a rewarding career in hi-tech that also allows you to make a real social impact, consider joining me at Synamedia.
Get involved at Synamedia
We’re looking to hire, so visit our careers page and see if there’s something for you.
Carmel 6000 is just one of several social impact projects across the world that Synamedia supports. We’ll write about other projects we support in future blogs.
About the Author
Avraham Poupko is a client software architect group leader at Synamedia. He designs large-scale software systems and leads their implementation. Avraham is currently focused on guiding our large PayTV customers on their technical journey from a legacy PayTV system to an IPTV-based system.
A passionate teacher, Avraham also lectures on topics related to software development and human communication. He is also a volunteer mentor at Carmel 6000.
