Summary
We, (Easy Bites) target the following objectives by using technology:
- Improving safety for Iraqi citizens in their day-to-day life (by decreasing bomb exposure)
- Stimulating the Iraqi economy (Gastronomy)
- Empowering the Iraqi economy to fight poverty (Supporting of Food Banks, Homeless Shelters)
We provide a web-based application for all mobile devices and pcs, which tracks the users gps location and enables him to order from all restaurants that are in his delivery radius. This information is transferred to the restaurants which initiate the delivery process.
In the future, for every order, users will contribute to a fund which supports homeless shelters (food banks) all over iraq, thereby empowering locals to help locals, in a way everyone can benefit.
The idea originally came from Dr. Mohammed Al-Samarrai, an Iraqi from Baghdad who enjoyed the priviledge of doing his PHD in the UK after his undergrad at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad. His goal, together with Ammar Ameen and Omar Al-Obaidi (also from Baghdad), was to ultilize technology to build a better Iraq.
Together with Oliver Koch, Ralph Magnus and Christoph Herbst (Consultants from Germany) we decided to start a test campaign in northern Iraq. After facing an increasing demand from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, as well as the succesful deployment of the application within the Pilotcity, we have decided to implement the project in Baghdad, Sulimania and Basra.
Iraq currently has an internet penetration of approximately 8%, growing insanely over the past year (4% contribution).
We put all the money we had into building the application and testing it with our Pilotcity, we need your support to increase our impact in entire IRAQ!
Check out our Google Tech Talk below!
Of Interest
What We Need & What You Get
We will use our funds as follows over the next year:
| 1. Dedicated Server (Local) |
900 |
| 2. Tagging Campaigns for Locals |
6.000 |
| 3. Promotion Flyers (Local) |
5.000 |
| 4. Supporters (Local) |
10.000 |
| 5. Homeless Shelter Support |
9.000 |
| Total |
30.900 |
Description of components:
1. Dedicated Server: To provide the service we need a dedicated server which host the application. Our current server will terminate by 01.07.2013
2. Tagging Campaigns for Locals: Iraq does not really have street names or addresses. To solve this problem we came up with an innovative idea which we succesfully tested in our pilot city. In each city, we will start and promote a competition with flyers. This competition will award the winner with a smartphone, mobile credit etc. All the participants have to do is go to key locations: pharmacies, hotels etc. and tag these (save the name and gps location through our app). This data will enable the restaurant to know the whereabouts of the user when he orders.
3. Promotion Flyers : After testing different ways of promoting the cause, we realized flyers are most effective. Therefore we are planning a campaign of 100.000 flyers over entire Iraq.
4. Supports (Local): We will use local supporters in spreading the flyers and recruiting restaurants.
5. Homeless Shelter Support: At the beginning, we will use these funds to top up monthly support for homeless shelters (food banks).
Once the campaign starts, we will publish all numbers of our orders on the website, as well as the contributions to different food shelters..
The Impact
Iraq is still facing a difficult situation since the invasion in 2003. The country is politically unstable and cities suffer from ongoing waves of explosions. Death and tragedy has become part of day to day life. Every trip outside of your house can end fataly and is risky, for this reason people try to limit their activities to local super markets and places in their surrounding.
The country is characterized by a very week private sector. Aside from oil income, the security situation makes it very difficult to build and grow businesses. Easy Bites aims at supporting restaurants to overcome these barriers. At the same time, it serves the population by offering new services which avoid the exposure to deathly incidents.
Furthermore, Easy Bites aims at educating the prviate sector & the wealthy part of the population towards fighting poverty, by contributing towards free meals for the poor with every order.
Other Ways You Can Help
We always welcome supporters that have ideas how to grow and improve the service. Furthermore we welcome any ideas on how to increase the awareness of our campaign in the region.
