Helping Hands

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Objective

Develop a matchmaking application for interaction between High Risk Individuals and volunteers to help with daily chores such as groceries. The aim is to present a platform for volunteers to offer their services to vulnerable (or elderly) people in their neighborhood.

Value Proposition

COVID has dramatically affected our everyday lifestyle. People having underlying health issues or people who are generally at a higher risk of getting infected face a lot of issues in finishing the most mundane daily things. Elderly people struggle with problems like getting their groceries or other everyday items from shops which act as a hotspot for the virus. The most obvious solution for that would to send a proxy to get their stuff. In a nutshell, this service would be kind of like a Tinder style system, where a volunteer can match to a vulnerable person, then offer them support, deliveries and any other necessary help.

Differentiation

The usual online services offer a home delivery system of everyday items or groceries for a profitable price. These services are reliable but the concept behind our idea for this app originates from a ‘social good’ point of view. There are a lot of young people in our community who like to volunteer and step up to offer support to those in need. This might provide them with an opportunity to do good for the society while the vulnerable people receive the help that they need.

Core Technology and Architecture

This is a MERN Stack project and thus uses MongoDB, Express, Node & React. Registration and login are as easy as it gets, logging into the app with Facebook accounts etc. Personal data is then used to build up an initial profile and collect info for matching. Users can set filters (discovery settings) to search people within a certain area, of certain sex and age. This service will offer matches leaving a user with Yes or No decision. Geolocation is the key to this whole system, or, in that matter, to any app of this kind. When users get connected to each other, a private chat is opened to them to communicate freely and safely. Push notifications act to alert a user about new connections and messages. The technology stack for this app Includes: JavaScript, Python, HTML5 as programming languages. MongoDB/Firebase Cloud Firestore can be used as a scalable database environment. Mapbox, for custom map designs, AWS for testing and deployment.
For backend, RESTful API serves as a bridge connecting any web-based client app to a server. This could be a great option along with certain real-time API to provide fast data transfer. Apart from that, the core of any app like this consists of a user management, chatting and notification system. This suggests implication of database frameworks like MongoDB, mapping tools such as Mapbox and SMS notification services in the likes of Twilio.