A digital platform that connects those in need to those who can help during COVID 19

#twiliohackathon #javascript #vue #node

In the light of recent events and the decision to extend the lockdown, I and my colleague Karthik wanted to build a platform to help the people affected by the pandemic, someplace where their grievances could be voiced to volunteers who could help.

This started as an idea over zoom catchups, post our daily office standup meetings, but soon we decided to give it a go and started conceptualizing the idea with one of our friends, Atul who was willing to help with the design.

It took us a month of our spare time, mostly over the weekends to put together the first version of the web app, that's when we realized we will need sponsorships from companies to get the project running. Thankfully, we received free credit grants from companies like Twilio, Digital Ocean, and MongoDB to get started. These grants were quite generous and got us this far to launch it for public use.

We built a full stack solution using NodeJS, MongoDB & VueJS. Integrated it with Mailgun for Email alerts and Twilio for SMS and Whatsapp alerts.
Adding to this we also developed a Whatsapp bot that helps people post aid requests with location and contact details and for volunteers and NGO organizations to check for any aid requests from zip code and location.

Furthermore, we went ahead and open-sourced the platform on Github to help other regions of the world to address the crisis.
We have launched this for India and will launch for the USA too.

What is Happening

COVID 19 has let to disruption across economic strata. Millions in underprivileged regions face penury and deprivation as economic activity grinds to a halt due to lockdown. The movement restrictions will prove economically devastating for India's poor, who live in its vast rural areas. The United Nations' 2019 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a holistic measure of poverty that looks at deprivation through the lens of nutrition, health indicators, schooling, sanitation, and access to essential amenities puts the number of poor in India at 36 million.
The government announced a $22.50bn relief package to help the poor to cope with the loss of income during the lockdown. These were supposed to be emergency measures but sadly India's system: weak, are not able to deliver these benefits to the needy in time.These were supposed to be emergency measures but sadly India's system: weak, are not able to deliver these benefits to the needy in time

The current scenario

Paytm, Lifeboy, PharmEasy, Razorpay, Zomato, SAFA, #IndiaFightsCoronaVirus, COVID-19 fundraisers on crowdfunding platforms, Google Pay, Goonj/CMRF, Prime Minister's Relief Fund and many more are doing their part by contributing in one way or another. Still, there are so many heartbreaking cases we come across every day and so many more stay untold & undiscovered. Even with all these initiatives, it's impossible to locate and help in a population of 136 billion. People and animals continue to suffer.