Céline Dion, The Jonas Brothers, Robin Thicke, Monica, Little Big Town, Olympic Champions Laurie Hernandez and Apolo Ohno as well as many other social advocates back Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge to Support the Health and Well-Being of People and Communities affected by Natural Disasters

LOS ANGELES, April 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Call for Code 2019, created by leading philanthropic producer David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause and Founding Partner IBM, is the largest engagement of developers in history. Call for Code was created in 2018 to challenge the 23 million developers around the world to help solve social challenges with sustainable software solutions. This year's Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge focuses on supporting the health and well-being of people and communities affected by natural disasters.

To show support for Call for Code and its charitable partners, celebrities, athletes and social advocates lent their powerful voices to help people and communities affected by natural disasters by participating in the #CallforCode global social campaign on World Health Day, April 7th.

"Since Call for Code launched last year, we received submissions for the Global Challenge from 156 nations, which contributed to making Call for Code the largest engagement of developers in history," said Call for Code creator David Clark. "We're also grateful for the support we're continuing to receive from celebrities, athletes and renowned organizations. In support of Call for Code on World Health Day, I'm grateful to Céline Dion, The Jonas Brothers, Robin Thicke, Monica, Laurie Hernandez, Apolo Ohno, Brian Littrell, Little Big Town, United Nations Human Rights, the Clinton Global Initiative University, and many others who helped promote Call for Code globally via their social followers."

"As Founding Partner of Call for Code, we are proud to support developers as change agents, and to empower them to innovate for social good," said Bob Lord, SVP, Cognitive Applications and Developer Ecosystems, IBM. "We're proud of the amazing tech solutions that came out of Call for Code in 2018, and are now excited to see the submissions the global developer community submits as part of this year's Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge."

The winner of the inaugural Call for Code Global Prize in 2018 was Project Owl. Project Owl created an innovative two-part software and hardware solution that allows civilians and first responders to stay in touch via an easily-deployable, Wi-Fi-enabled mesh network when normal communications networks have been compromised.

Call for Code aims to help deliver support to disaster victims, which is especially important as last year ranked as one of the worst years on record for catastrophic events, including fires, floods, earthquakes and storms.

In recognition for its global reach and impact, Call for Code was named an honoree at the 2019 CES Innovation Awards.

How to Join Call for Code

• Developers can register today at: callforcode.org
• Projects can be submitted by individuals – or teams of up to five people – between March 25, 2019 and July 29, 2019.
• The winner will receive a $200,000 USD cash prize and project support from The Linux Foundation.

SOURCE Call for Code Global Initiative