Maitri mobile app: to connect old-age homes and orphanages, win tech prize in US

Five Girls from Amity International School in Noida, Uttar Pradesh developed a mobile application called ‘Maitri’ that connects children at orphanages with senior citizens in old-age homes. The innovation by this all-girls team called “Tech Witches” fetched them a bronze medal at global tech competition called ‘Technovation Challenge’ held in San Francisco, United States.

The developers of app include Arefa, Vanshika Yadav, Ananya Grover, Vasudha Sudhinder and Anushka Sharma all Class 12 students of Amity International School in Noida.

About Maitri mobile app

Objective: It is aimed at bringing together individuals suffering from loneliness and depression and those lacking nurturing love of elderly role models.

App is available for free download on Google playstore.

Features:

It allows users to volunteer and donate to old-age homes and orphanages through it.

Maitri’ allows old-age homes and orphanages to sign up and organise meetings, thus facilitating children and senior citizens to spend time together.

Maitri allows only validated facilities to register and provides contact details and map locations for assistance.

App has seen more than 1,000 downloads till date and has 13 old-age homes and 7 orphanages connected through it.

Coverage: During initial phase the focus area of app was Delhi-NCR area but the team now seeks to take this app pan-India by getting more and more orphanages and old-age homes registered on it.

Finance: Now ‘Maitri’ developers are looking forward to crowdfund $40,000, the investment needed for 1st year of their operations. Also, donations received through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding will also help team recover their operation costs.

About Technovation Challenge

It is world’s largest technology and entrepreneurship programme for girls.

It runs across more than 100 countries, supported by Google.org, Salesforce.org, Uber, Adobe Foundation, Samsung, BNY Mellon as well as UNESCO, the Peace Corps and UN Women, according to its website.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2019