Inspirations
As the COVID-19 outbreak begins, the supply of all the necessary commodities like rice, vegetables, soap, toilet papers, hand sanitizers, freshwater, etc is decreasing. Almost all the grocery shops and convenience stores are getting closed one by one if a country goes into lockdown. Even if a few are open, it's tough to visit stores in the current situation. In some places, many medicine shops are also getting closed due to lack of manpower. Additionally, online shops' home delivery service also gets hindered and stops at some point due to decreasing logistic support. As a result, the whole infrastructure of the food and medicine supply chain might get collapsed. People who are running out of food and medical supplies will be in a very difficult situation which might be chaotic to a society. However, the only commodities available in such a situation will be to those people who were able to stock necessary things at their home beforehand. These little stocks of essential goods could be a lifesaver to many.
What it does?
The App will help to connect with nearby people who are running out of supplies to the people who have enough supplies at their homes.
Ask for Supplies
People who ran out of supplies will post to get what they need in exchange for what they have.
- Exchange: People can exchange goods. Example: Person_X: I need 1kg of rice. Person_Y: I have 2kgs of potato.
- Buy: One can buy from another if he doesn't want to exchange or doesn't have something suitable to exchange. Example: Person_X: I want to sell 2 toilet papers and 1 sanitary napkin. Person_Y: I want to buy it.
- Donate: One can donate whatever s/he wants to. The notifications of donations will be sent only to the needy persons.
- Grocery and Medicine Shops: The owners of grocery and medicine shops can create accounts and post their updates of stock and if they are open or closed. Normal users will be able to see which nearby shops are open and which items those shops have.
- Emergency Response: As we will have the data of available goods of the registered people along with the data of the shops/stores, we can predict which area is going to be in crisis and needs emergency support from outside. It might help the concerned Govt.authorities to take steps rapidly and solve problems before it begins.
Real-time Map
Nearby users will be shown realtime on map with pictures of what s/he needs/wants or what others are offering.
Notifications
Notifications will be sent to the user who is nearby and have a commodity that is needed by other people. They can respond and contact the user through the App.
In-App Messenger
Users will be able to chat with each other to get the contact info.
Friends and Relatives
Contacts saved on the phone will be synced and nearby relatives or friends will be shown on the map.
How we will build it?
There will be an App and also a web application. The App will be a cross-platform application that will run on both Android and iOS devices.
Challenges:
As the App/service needs to be launched in a very short period, it will take a huge effort to make it bug-free and user friendly with limited UI/UX research. Additionally, handling enormous traffic will be another issue that would be needed to overcome.
Accomplishments that we're proud of:
We are a team with diverse team members consisting of Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Software Engineer, Developer, and Researchers from Bangladesh. We have previous experience in Machine Learning and Bioscience research, participated in various hackathons and created stable software solutions for health, social, and rural problems.
What we've learned?
We have learned to brainstorm, plan and implement a viable and sustainable solution to address various problems of our country as well as the whole world. Additionally, we have gained the attitude of getting the job done.
What's next for 'NeighbourGoods'?
After the successful launch of the App in Google Play Store and App Store, we will focus on the website. We will promote it using social media so that more users register through our platform. We will try to implement money transferring gateways and social organizations which are volunteering in this crisis. It will help people to donate money easily.
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