Typhoon Yolanda: Supporting relief efforts with BangonPH

Here at Pusher we see our software being used in a myriad of ways on a regular basis. Today, however, we particularly want to highlight the disaster relief role played by BangonPH in light of Typhoon Yolanda hitting the Phillipines, and how you as a developer can help.

Reconstruction

BangonPH is a website set up to coordinate the aforementioned relief efforts, using Pusher to display real-time lists of what people need in affected areas and what people can offer. It further displays a breakdown of information of what each region that has been hit by the typhoon needs.

While the lists are mainly for local coordination, international supporters can click on each ‘region’ for links to support international aid organisations, such as UNICEF and the Red Cross.

No Limits

We were in contact with Albert Padin, one of those who helped build the website, and have removed limits on BangonPH to allow them as much as they need to carry out their job. We’re truly humbled to assist in such an undertaking and are providing all the support we can to ensure the coordination efforts go smoothly.

It’s not often that Pusher is used for a task such as this, and it serves as a firm but sombre reminder that there’ll be a role for us to play, even from our office in London.

Efforts are still being made to collate data on the scale of damage to individual regions. Information such as the number of people affected, electricity, water and medical supplies needed still being gathered but will likely become available as relief efforts continue.

Humanitarian Coding

Other developers have also responded swiftly to a call by Geeklist for ‘humanitarian coding efforts’ as part of the ongoing #Hack4Good efforts to develop apps that can support, no matter what size the contribution might be.

Projects like BangonPH and Geeklist’s humanitarian Hackathon only show how much we’re capable of as developers, even though we may live half a world away. Even if your contribution is a few hours of coding from your home, you can be certain that it will help someone affected by the typhoon.

Have you ever had to develop software or apps for disaster relief? Let us know on Twitter, but more importantly: help however you can too.