The 2015 Chennai floods was an eye-opener for many people, Venkatesh Ramarathinam included. The entrepreneur from Chennai, who is the CEO of Vuram Technology. Solutions, a software company, saw how difficult it was for donors to reach out to those in need and deliver the goods and services that they needed. He knew that he had to do something about it. Fast forward to 2018, Venkatesh has now come up with an application called The Humane Life that acts as a facilitator between donors and NGOs, making sure that everyone receives what they actually need.
Launched on February 3, 2018, this Android app (soon to be launched on the iOS platform) has a very simple working principle. NGOs will just have to download the app and register themselves by uploading their documents and balance sheets. After verification, the NGOs becomes a part of The Humane Life and they can start posting their needs and/or services on the app. The requests are then put forward to potential donors through Vuram's social media handles, reaching out to donors. Donors can donate goods by buying and delivering them or by purchasing online and getting them delivered directly.
"There are good non-profits everywhere. So, we wanted to help them gain exposure. Also, potential donors will have a one-stop checkpoint and won't need to search individual NGO pages. This saves them a lot of time," says Venkatesh, adding, "These need not be just goods and services. There have also been requests for housekeeping and physiotherapy. Everything is not for profit." Once the goods are delivered, the NGOs can mark the request ‘closed’ and if they wish, even upload a completion video.
Venkatesh and his team started working on the app in April. They initially had a lot of obvious dilemmas, one of them was starting fundraisers through the platform. "After lots of pondering, we decided to keep money out of it. It just complicated everything. Also, we decided not to collect food because you can't always test if the food is good. Blood is another thing that we don't deal with,” says Venkatesh.
So far, nine NGOs in Chennai have signed up on the app. A couple of weeks after its inception, there have received around 25 requests and most of them have been taken care of. While Venkatesh and his team are working hard to expand their services to other cities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, he tells us about his larger dream. "One day, we want all the NGOs in the world to come together here. It is possible," he says, confidently.
Find out more at: www.thehumane.life
