Everyone deserves access to clean clothes, a toothbrush and a decent blanket. We help NGOs distribute aid to people fairly through using some pretty amazing technology we built ourselves. We made our app, Boxtribute, when we were just two lowly volunteers working in a Greek refugee camp, Nea Kavala. Back then, five years ago, aid distributions were such a nightmare! Organisations only felt brave enough to do a distribution that wouldn't end in fights when distributing the same item to every person, but this meant that half of the beneficiaries waited an hour or two in line for aid items they didn't even want. But most of us volunteers were totally inexperienced, and tensions were so high with hundreds of new people arriving every day. We just couldn't see a solution.

But then we remembered, we are coders! We love tech and can create anything if we put our minds to it. So we locked up for a few days and designed and developed an app which any volunteer can use to run a distribution, and it worked! Volunteers just use the app to register a person using their camp-registration or regular ID card, plus they can monitor what's in the warehouse by using QR-code labels we developed. These two tools meant that suddenly any volunteer, even on their first day, had answers to two questions: who are we trying to give aid to, and how much do we have? And it's just soared since then.

Now in 2021, we have 11 partners in 6 different countries, who use the Boxtribute app to have a smooth and consistent system to distribute aid, like clothes, shoes, blankets or hygiene items. The best part is that beneficiaries can choose items they need and like themselves, which gives them freedom and encourages volunteers to think about them as individuals, not as a number. We also developed GDPR-compliant data storage, a check-out system which works like a real shop and are currently working on making it offline, too. Overall, we think Boxtribute is pretty awesome, and hope that you agree!