Help.

A screenshot of the app
Balsalmiq Wireframe

Inspiration

Have you ever been stuck in the bathroom wishing you could somehow ask nearby women if they had an extra tampon?

What it does

Using maps and a chatbox, the app will locate you and let you know women around you with extra feminine hygiene products and allow you to chat with them. Also, if you are walking by a homeless shelter or women's shelter, the app will ping you to remind you to drop off extra tampons or pads if you have them on you.

How we built it

We used a React Native front end and a Rails backend.

Challenges we ran into

Chat boxes are easier said than done. We intend to pivot from using direct chat to first implementing a forum where women can publicly post calls for help in their times (of the month) of need and save direct messaging for a later version of our app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Implementing the maps feature and using React Native. We were all beginners in React Native but we were able to learn quickly to achieve an MVP.

What we learned

We found that our passion for the project helped encourage us to persist through technical challenges and we are all coming away with a better understanding of React Native and how to use APIs in conjunction with front end frameworks.

What's next for Help.

We would like to add the Stripe API to allow users to donate directly to women's shelters in another screen (and possibly add the ability for shelters to also state specific needs for more donations.