Bloom

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About two months ago, three Belgians were sitting in their living room in Cambridge, MA (USA) thinking about ways to contribute to society in times of COVID-19 crisis. On their whiteboard, they outlined the idea for Bloom. After many pivots in idea and physical relocations, the lasting vision for Bloom was created and slowly but surely a team was assembled.

Bound together by the urge to make a positive impact during this crisis we found out that mental health issues are increasing during times of isolation. This combined with the fact that there is a stigma regarding mental healthcare in Belgium which makes people reluctant to search for help, inspired us to use these exceptional times for the better. We created an initiatief that lowers barriers to psychological aid and encourages people to take the first step to talk about their problems.

Having never seen each other face-to-face, a group of about 12 volunteers devoted day and night to the development of the platform. Many video-calls and e-mails later, we now consider ourselves a tight-knit family and have bonded over the highs and lows of this journey. We are extremely proud to announce that we have created a beautiful, user-friendly platform and plan to launch in the upcoming week. The EUvsVirus Hackathon is the icing on the cake and we couldn't be more excited to be a part of it!