Innovation/ Initiatives Mobile Application for volunteers, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

(2018 to till now) - 0 years, 0 months, 0 days

Dear friends, this is an attention seeking post!

When I encounter problems that we in Government face, most of the time I also instantly get ideas to get around those problems. Most of the 150 plus innovations I have done, are solutions to mundane problems in Government. So when the Chennai floods happened in 2015, I was seeing the disconnect between volunteers and institutions who needed the services of those volunteers. Thus arose an idea in my mind that there should be an app connecting volunteers and institutions who need their services…..and hence the app Volndear! It can be downloaded on android Google Phones and Apple iPhone. There are any number of apps in the volunteering space, but none in the way Volndear has been designed.

This App was conceived by me and developed by a company called Zigma, inspired by the tremendous enthusiasm and comittment of young boys and girls who volunteered to help people caught in the floods at Chennai in December 2015. This app has also been created out of concern that the tremendous energies of these volunteers are invariably not put to the best use in many cases because of the inability of government and NGOs to use their skills sets appropriately.

This app is dedicated to all volunteers across the world who give their heart out, especially during emergencies. This app can be used by any individual, Government agency or the Non Governmental sector in tapping the potential of volunteers in doing good to humanity, both during normal times and especially during calamities.

Four types of people across the world can register on this app: 1. any citizen, 2. any government agency, 3. any NGO or 4. any volunteer. This pretty much covers the whole of humanity. This will connect event creators to the volunteers with the appropriate skill set necessary for the success of the event, through in-app notifications to the volunteer.

The app has been standardised to ensure that the correct and full details of the person/agency creating an event and that of the volunteer is captured, lest this app be used for unlawful activities. We are working to ensure that the moment an event is created, the local police station will receive information about the event.

Please download the app and give me critical feedback. This can be treated as the beta version.

My heartfelt thanks to Sathyanarayanan Ganesan, who suggested Zigma Techmologies as willing to take up this idea and develop it as a CSR activity. Their CEO Mr.Raja is an amazing person. The development team led by Venkatesh Ramachandran has done a great job of developing the app. There are still numerous issues. If you can download the app and tell me the issues you are facing, it will help us rectify the defects and make it a useful app. I am requesting you to be volunteers for testing the app!

Happy volunteering!