Ivory

A community-based delivery service for sanitary and reproductive health products

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Inspiration

During the pandemic, womxn (especially those who are immunocompromised) have struggled to obtain sanitary and reproductive health products, such as pads and birth control. Many existing delivery services charge hefty fees, which are expensive and unfeasible for many.

What it does

To solve these issues, we created Ivory. Ivory is a community-based delivery service specifically for sanitary and reproductive health products. Service fees are minimal, and anyone can join the delivery team by passing a background check. Deliverers can travel by car, bike, walking - however they wish! Ivory allows the community to come together and help one another.

How we built it

On the front end, we used React, HTML, and CSS to create a user-friendly UI. For the back end, we used PostgreSQL to build a database to store all the orders, Heroku to deploy the API, GoogleMaps API to display a map of the current location, and Node.js to add functionality to the web app.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge for us was completing such a nuanced project within the 24-hour limit while working virtually. Additionally, our members live in different time zones so we had to work around that on top of everything else.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our project overall - we tackled the lack of accessible sanitary and reproductive health products during the pandemic, and executed a design-savvy and functional app that fully captures our vision for this project idea.

What we learned

Collaboration and communication are essential to developing a working product. Not only did we gain exposure to new technology and APIs, but we also learned how to collaborate on a project virtually while accommodating for time zone differences.

What's next for Ivory

In the future, we want to:

  • Implement more thorough background checks for new and current deliverers
  • Connect with doctors who can prescribe birth control, antibiotics, etc. through Ivory
  • Connect directly with pharmacies so Ivory can provide services to larger communities
  • Use a strict monitoring system to ensure the safety of every customer and deliverer
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