Introducing EnaHouni: A COVID-19 response tool for Tunisia
As COVID-19 spreads through our world’s public health systems, countries are faced with unprecedented coordination challenges — many of which will require the full mobilization and collaboration of citizens to solve effectively.
With at least 227 confirmed cases and 5 fatalities so far, our home country of Tunisia is no exception. The national lockdown and ban on travel between cities leaves many of our fellow citizens to face this crisis without the typical support of family members who regularly travel between our capital city of Tunis and its neighboring towns. The shockwaves of this lockdown and the limited number of critical care beds in our hospitals makes flattening the curve critically important.
Times like these are crucial reminders of who our society’s heroes really are. Here at Think-it, we’re not public health experts — we’re just engineers and data scientists. But after studying the specific risks we face in Tunisia, our team realized we had something to contribute to the collective effort.
Introducing a platform for civilian and medical volunteers
In respect for social distancing, we worked hard as a remote team the last several days (and nights!) to engineer EnaHouni: a platform designed to digitally connect vulnerable people in need — and the local volunteers who can help them.
EnaHouni’s algorithm connects volunteers who want to support their local community during the crisis with critical tasks like grocery shopping, medication deliveries, driving services, or childcare — with a focus on the most affected demographic groups like the elderly and individuals with chronic diseases or disabilities. Additionally, the platform connects understaffed hospitals with volunteers who have a medical background — including mobile nurses, medical students, aid caregivers, and doctors — to deploy extra hands as frontline support.
EnaHouni (Tunisian Arabic for “I am here for you”) was originally launched in Tunisia, but is already extending its reach to similarly affected countries like Libya, Algeria or Uzbekistan — where citizen mobilization and solidarity initiatives are urgently needed to supplement government responses.
How to use EnaHouni:
If you are in a high-risk group or represent a medical institution that needs more support, you can register as a help-seeker on EnaHouni and tell us what kind of help you are looking for.
If you are a volunteer with or without medical background, you can register as an individual offering support. EnaHouni does the rest by intelligently matching those in need and those willing to help, and enables immediate communication so that the right response can be delivered at the right place at the right time.
To learn more about EnaHouni, please contact Mehemed Bougsea at mehemed@think-it.io.
