What was intended to be an app for users to share surplus food, ended up being a lifesaver when Chennai was inundated by rains and half the city flooded. As volunteers struggled to organise their efforts and the affected searched desperately for relief and supplies, Scappi for Chennai, a geo-location-based app, was published on the Google Play store. The app has since helped volunteers and NGOs upload the locations of relief camps and supply caches, helping streamline the relief efforts. Scappi was conceptualised as a pet project by Avira Tharakan, CEO of MyEasyDocs, an online document verification company and Theory Y, a Kochi-based app development firm. The app was supposed to use geo-location to indicate where users could pick up food being offered, but when the floods hit and his own office staff was affected, Avira and team decided to use the existing platform to do some good. “Our main office is based in Chennai, and the floods affected us and displaced our staff as well. At this point it struck us that people need to know where relief camps are and contact volunteers, so we tweaked the app we were developing to do just that,” says Avira, over the phone from Dubai.
By December 2, the team started repurposing the app, and after working 18 – 20 hours for the better part of three days, the app was published. Initial response has been overwhelming, with over 500 downloads and positive feedback. Social media did its part to spread the word, even as the developers themselves were focussed on updating the app. “One problem we noticed was unverified information, so we would conduct basic phone verification whenever someone uploaded their details. We’ve also been trying to get in touch with the army to include the positions of their camps.”
Avira stresses that while the attention has been focussed on Chennai, the app can be used anywhere, allowing volunteers to coordinate gathering of supplies in other cities sending aid to Chennai. The team is also including features that allow volunteers to upload their details and offer aid, and for the stranded or needy to tag themselves and request aid.
Pressed into action without a plan, Avira says the Scappi team wants to continue offering the service beyond the present crisis. “We plan to retain Scappi as a voluntary, NGO-based platform, as we don’t want to affect the goodwill we have earned by commercialising it. We’ll be looking for corporate support to help us achieve that.”