POMOCtu

Inspiration

Talking to elderly parents. 300 kilometres away. In insolation. Can’t get to them to help, with groceries and medicines needed. Must find someone to help. Someone local to where they live. How?

Driving for shopping the other day. Empty streets, looking at houses I drive by. I have spare place in my trunk. Is there someone around I could help?

What it does

The POMOCtu application connects people who need help with those who want to help within the local community.

When you or someone you know need help

Are you at home, maybe in isolation and you need help, e.g. in grocery shopping, getting your prescription, buying pet food, walking the dog or something else?

Use POMOCtu on your Android, iOS device or via web browser to ask for help.

Fill in simple form and let others know what help is needed, where and when.
Submit your help request.
No detailed location nor contact information is shared.
You can always delete or update you request.
If someone decides to help you – you’ll be notified.
Check your request then to see contact phone number to volunteer willing to help. Call and agree details.
If you wish you may then use the app to share your location with assigned volunteer.
When you received help don’t forget to close your request.

You can also ask for help for other people, family, your loved ones, friends, especially when they are far away from you and you can't help them yourself.

When you want to help

Use POMOCtu on your Android, iOS device or via web browser to find people in need near you.

Provide your location
Browse list of help requests sorted by distance from your location
Check requests details, approximate location and select those you can help with
Fill in contact phone, message to request author and submit your commitment to help.
Await for phone call to agree further details.
You'll be informed if request owner deletes it or makes changes
Go & help!

POMOCtu works in Polish (Poland) and English (worldwide).

How I built it

This project is social responsibility project of SayEnergy - company I work for.

I selected cordova hybrid application with node.js backend api & firebase messaging to ensure maximum functionality and availability in short time.

My 12 year old daughter helped with graphics ;-)

Challenges I ran into

Localisation – distance units switch for non-metric / metric countries
Location (address) data quality (OSM)
Play Store, App Store testing & review process was relatively slow compared to new builds frequency / development pace

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

POMOCtu is available as free app on https://pomoctu.pl, in Google PlayStore and Apple App Store

What I learned

Extreme, fast development can work ;-)
Mobile applications can be user friendly even for elderly, rather not ‘digitally enabled’ users – as learned (hard) during testing process.