‘Traanchitro’: A platform promising organised relief distribution

Non-profit organisation ShomonnoiBD has designed a database platform "Traanchitro", where the data of relief distribution can be stored and monitored, to ensure fair and organised relief allocation inside the country.

There are more than 6,000 non-profit organisations across the country, which ShomonnoiBD planned to bring together in a single platform to help them fight against any kind of disaster in Bangladesh in unison.

The database allows anyone to access the system to learn about the communities - who are getting emergency relief and who are not.

Apart from that, non-profit organisations can record their own activities to build their portfolio.

"We have initiated this project to maintain a state of equilibrium of relief distribution across the country," said Co-founder of ShomonnoiBD Md Rashedul Islam, adding that they try to ensure all beneficiaries are being addressed with their rights.

"We have organisations from every division working with us. Now we need to increase our capacity to make it more effective," he added.

While talking about their vision, Shaumik Sharif, another Co-founder of ShomonnoiBD, said, "In social media we come across news like farmers are not getting fair price for their produced crops (vegetables, fruits etc). We are trying to address those farmers so that we can connect them with potential buyers who will purchase their crops. We call it Production Capacity Mapping."

"To make this project successful, we need support from the government, as well as private companies."

However, ShomonnoiBD, a non-profit initiative taken by a group of alumni and current students of Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), has recently distributed relief goods among 150 families in Bogura, Natore, Khagrachari and Bandarban. They will be reaching another 55 families in Tangail who are clay modellers within the next 2-3 days.

Besides online activism, ShomonnoiBD is trying to reach those vulnerable areas where emergency assistance is not easily available. At some places, they were the first to distribute it.