One of the most important things for us at Applover is support. It’s not just about supporting ourselves or the client. It’s also about supporting in various situations so that all hands on deck are obvious when there’s someone in need. When the war in Ukraine started and we knew that our neighbors needed help, we didn’t wait.
In the beginning, we fund-raised and organized a collection of the most necessary things. Thanks to this we could help by buying a dozen beddings sets and clothes, cleaning products, food, and many other products. Since it began, we quickly realized that demand had changed dramatically – this resulted in the development of GdzieZbiórka.
One application to coordinate aid collections for Ukraine
After the first wave of aid collections and verification of needs, it turned out that aid is needed not only at the border but also within Ukraine itself. Military, medication, electronics, and specialist equipment turned out to be indispensable. Therefore, Applover, together with Media Maker, Publicon, HyperCrew, TSS, Tagatic, and Wolfs associated with the Czysta3.vc fund, purchased the first ambulance for a hospital in Mościska. On March 5, 2022, the ambulance left for Ukraine.
The next step was to organize a hackathon – a 24-hour programming marathon during which our employees took part in brainstorming to create an application. There were many great ideas, and the team’s commitment deserves recognition. During the hackathon, our employees had unlimited access to energy drinks, and the company provided catering for the duration of programming sessions.
We noticed that the main problem for today is the lack of adequate logistics in the collection organization process. We decided to facilitate this process. This is how the application and the website ''Gdzie zbiórka?''
This is how the web and mobile apps of „Gdzie zbiórka?” (meaning “where’s the collection?“) were created. The main purpose of the application is to systematize information about the demand at collection points. People who want to join in, have the opportunity to easily search for help points in their immediate vicinity, as well as find out where to donate specific products. All places have been placed on the interactive map of Wrocław, along with the status informing about current needs.
Thanks to the application, the collection point coordinator can immediately update information about the demand. On the other hand, a person who wants to get involved and donate products will find information about the current needs in a given location in it. This significantly facilitates the process of searching for the appropriate collection point.
Standing in solidarity with Ukraine
During the app development, we were also joined by people from outside the organization who wanted to help us achieve our goal as efficiently as possible. People from various departments took part in the creation process, apart from programmers and designers, who had the greatest responsibility, there were also project managers, the marketing department, and the administration.
Working on the application was quite a challenge, but we managed. I am very proud of the entire team that was fully involved in this project and together we did something to support the refugees.
The situation related to the war in Ukraine sparked an incredible humanitarian outburst, which we have been observing among our countrymen for several days. Willing to engage in real help for those in need, we decided to create a product aimed at the precise coordination of help points in Poland. It turned out that the project was ambitious and we spent more time on it than we initially assumed. Our employees worked for 3 days and 3 nights almost continuously, so that our work could find application in reality as soon as possible and began to help those who heroically help.
The application is available in the online version at GdzieZbiorka.pl as well as for download in Google Play and App Store. For now, we support three languages: Polish, English, and Ukrainian. When creating various parts of the project, our developers used various technologies such as:
- WordPress for landing page,
- Ruby on Rails for backend system,
- Vue.js for frontend development,
- Flutter for mobile application.
Contact
Do you want to find out more about ''Gdzie zbiórka?'' app?
Supporting the refugees with GdzieZbiórka
Currently, several dozen collection points are added to the database of our application, which gives us the best feedback that this product was needed and fulfills its purpose. If you are the organizer of the collection and you want to add your point to the application, you can do it via the website.
We hope that the situation in Ukraine will end as soon as possible. Through our actions, we show solidarity with our Ukrainian employees, their families, and compatriots, and we are not going to stop. We want to help in this extremely difficult situation as much as we can. We would like to thank all those involved in helping people from a country covered by the war.
