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Home Page
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Menstrual Tracker
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Mood Tracker
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AI-Powered Chat (and Voice) Bot
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Mindfullness, Journalling and Other Resources
Inspiration
It all started when I was 14. Every month, I would feel agitated and overwhelmed, not knowing what was happening with my body, only to realize, a few days later, it’s the 20th of the month. Having irregularities and complexities with the cycle always took a toll on my mental health. Growing up in a brown household, I knew there was nobody I could talk to, let alone a professional, as I'd heard nobody wants to talk about these things.
As I got older, I realized that this needs to change. So, on a random Wednesday afternoon, in the middle of my college assignments, I decided to take on building Durgastra, an AI-powered app to help women around the world solidify and affirm what they're feeling. For little girls to not feel isolated and alone. For older women to not be silenced. For women to finally be free of this inner turmoil.
This is Durgastra, named after the Indian goddess Durga—the goddess of protection and strength.
What it does
Our app initially logs the user's age. It has daily check-ins for menstrual and mood tracking to curate resources and provide tailored advice through the AI-powered chatbot. It offers educational articles, personalized journaling prompts, and mood-boosting recipes. It also has community building features with encrypted chat rooms.
How we built it
We developed Durgastra using React Native to cater to both iOS and Android platforms and used a Firebase backend for user management, data management, and notification. Authentication of the Firebase accounts was responsible for the login process and protected user's information. An AI-based chatbot was implemented using the natural language processing toolkit Dialogflow. To extend the community features, we updated the real time database to add encrypted chat rooms for users. Used Redux for state management, React Navigation for the smooth UI/UX interaction, and Axios for the API.
Challenges we ran into
Being quite inexperienced in developing applications, I did encounter some practial issues such as the deployment of the environment, obtaining correct snippets of the code and seamless execution of all the functionalities of the application. A lot of time and help from my peers (and AI) allowed me to get through most of the problems, and deliver an app that is quite close to what I had in my mind.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are glad to have developed a safe and comfortable space for women which encourages the management of mental health tasks focused on compassion. Our chatbot runs on AI and is able to give users tips according to their moods and menstrual cycles making mental health support more humanized. We have now added a few first community features starting with secure chat rooms for private and peer based ‘round the clock’ support. With the help of educational texts, daily journaling and uncomplicated self-care practices, we want Durgastra to stimulate women with the idea of nurturing their mental and emotional health in a holistic manner.
What we learned
As every project, this one too had a huge learning curve. Coming in with little background in app development, there were moments when I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew. Throughout this journey, I always had in mind the 14 year old me who would have loved to have an app like this on her phone. I learned not only React Native, chatbot integration, and community groups but also the actual power of dedication and hard work towards a goal that makes a difference.
What's next for Durgastra
Whether my solution is accepted or not, I believe Durgastra stands for something bigger. With the hackathon funding, I plan to turn this project into a fully functioning app for women’s health. Starting from an actual app launch, expansion, chatbot enhancements, and wearable integration, I plan to make this project a real support system for women worldwide.
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