Quarantine Buddy x Solve Squad

When contemplating the challenges of COVID-19 over the past year, one of the biggest issues many have had to come to terms with is the problem of isolation. Despite mandatory quarantine measures and social distancing standards, it has been a recurring theme in everyday life that human interaction has been limited, and connectivity seems almost a distant pastime than a real-time reality.

Such was the conversation between two students from Cornell University who realised that they could solve this issue; and brought this idea to reality through the formation of Quarantine Buddy (QBuddy).

The digital platform essentially connects people from all walks of life, occupation and backgrounds together to forge new friendships. Since April of 2020, QBuddy has been able to help people in over 150 countries, and continues to assist countless individuals to gain new perspectives and learn from people’s stories. Furthermore, the platform has also been able to address the overarching issues of loneliness and isolation within diverse communities across the globe.

As Jordyn Goldzweig, the co-founder of QBuddy mentions, “from working on QBuddy, we have learned that loneliness is not limited to the pandemic, but rather, the pandemic only  exacerbated the isolation and loneliness that people were already feeling. Therefore, we are planning on continuing to work on QBuddy after the pandemic, and we are confident that we are truly helping people combat their loneliness”.

Isolation may be a social issue, but human connection is the solution.