Local Tech Team Had A Weekend ‘Hackathon’ To Help Raise White Flags Online

As of 7 July, 13 out of over 300 white flags have been confirmed to have received aid.

Credit: TRP/rawpixel.com via Freepik

Subscribe to our new Telegram channel for the latest stories and updates.

As the #BenderaPutih charity movement continues to fly across the country, Malaysians from all walks of life are coming together to provide any help they can to those desperately in need of assistance.

One such group came in the form of a local team of tech experts from Terato Tech who developed a web application called Kita Jaga Malaysia to let people know where they can find help or locate those who are asking for aid.

Kita Jaga Malaysia simply works by having users select whether they need assistance or provide aid by pinning their locations on an interactive map.

With a simple, intuitive and self-explanatory system, those wanting assistance need only to press the red button to be placed on the map by filling in a few necessary details such as one’s name, address and phone number. Those who are providing help such as food banks, soup kitchens or personal charity can follow similar steps for broadcasting their locations by clicking on the blue button.

The app also comes with a search bar to help better locate any white flags or blue aid beacons nearby.

According to 36-year-old Zara Aida, CEO of Terato Tech, the idea to put up ‘white flags’ on cyberspace came when a colleague by the name of Achan who’s originally from Riau, Indonesia got the team of developers, Edo, Hisyam and Basyrun, to work on a weekend-long ‘hackathon’ to develop the app.

Starting the project on a Friday (2 July), the team managed to get Kita Jaga Malaysia live and running by Monday.

Zara said that as of Wednesday, the application has a total of 57,382 users and had thus far flagged 344 people asking for help and 1,156 people or places providing assistance in the country.

The CEO also revealed that out of the over 300 white flags that are pinned on the map, only 13 have been successfully confirmed to have gotten aid.

For security and privacy reasons, flags pinned on the app would only remain live for a maximum of three days.

All the aid is decentralized at the moment, meaning that those that need help and those who want to provide help will remain listed on the app for several days. Users would need to input a token number that was provided to edit their info if they have received aid.

Zara confessed that the team was facing financial problems at keeping the service alive but was adamant at improving their free-to-use application for everyone to unite and help each other

We had to make some costly optimizations while using the Google Maps API (application programming interface) but we will come back stronger.

If you are in need of aid or looking to broadcast your personal aid relief efforts, visit Kita Jaga Malaysia at https://kitajaga.co/.

For more #KitaJagaKita and #BenderaPutih resources, check out our previous story here where we talked about another convenient app where you can help the community.

Share your thoughts with us via TRP’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.