April 09, 2020
Get in touch
Toilet paper is currently not the only commodity that is not equally available to all: finding relevant offers of help in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is also a challenge. AOE employee Ronny Neefe is developing a solution to at least one of these problems: an online portal that simplifies access to help.
The decisive factor for his project was the #WirVsVirus Hackathon of the federal German government: From March 20-22, more than 42,000 people participated and jointly implemented projects to help overcome the Corona crisis, including employees of AOE. Ronny Neefe’s idea: coronahilfe-finder.de – a platform that pools and displays offers of help by region. In the end, he implemented his idea independently of the hackathon. He is continuing to work on expanding the database and improving usability, for example by creating additional filters or subcategories.
Basically, his platform is a small digital marketplace: Here supply and demand come together. Although numerous organizations, associations and private individuals in every city offer a wide range of help on the Internet, it is not always easy to find it. Anyone with a concrete need for a specific location must first embark on an arduous search in the vastness of the Internet.
Ronny Neefe’s portal offers the solution: By entering the postcode on a website, people can easily display a list of help offers in their region – be it associations, institutions or neighborhood help. To achieve this, Ronny Neefe and his girlfriend have been combed through the Internet together, collecting data and building a database.
The offers that can be found via the portal are diverse: they range from neighborhood services such as shopping assistance to Facebook groups for networking and pastoral care by telephone. The database already contains more than 200 current offers of help – and is constantly growing. Because anyone can add projects – quite simply on the website.
