Overcoming COVID-19: Live projects and efforts to help get through this time

At times like this, it’s amazing to see what people are doing to help one another. From North America to Europe and across to Asia, the world is coming together more and more every day. At Algolia, we are blown away by what both our existing customers and small groups of developers are doing to make the world just a little bit better by connecting people with much needed information, products and services. We are proud to be a small part of this. 

In the examples below, you will see projects to support local and global communities from helping raise funds for small businesses, to providing valuable medical information, to providing free online courses. 

After posting that Algolia’s Pro Plan is free to any developer or team working on COVID-19-related, not-for-profit websites or apps a couple of weeks ago, we have been thankful, touched…and seriously impressed by the individuals and teams building and going live with their valuable sites practically overnight. Some of these projects include the following:

 

Website	Objective	Region
CovidVolunteers.org	CovidVolunteers.org helps connect local volunteers with those in need in an effort to keep the quarantined at home. Sick and at-risk users can search for nearby volunteers who are willing to help perform daily tasks that would otherwise force them to leave their homes and expose others.	United States
Anti Covid-19	Anticovid, a single source of up-to-date information about clinical trials for COVID19, focuses on joining efforts in clinical research to quickly find a treatment and vaccine.	Worldwide
Still Hiring	Still Hiring’s objective is to showcase real-time data on companies that are hiring to ensure candidates are confident that they are applying for jobs that are currently still being hired for during this turbulent time.	Worldwide
We Are Still Open	We Are Still Open is a non-profit initiative created to support local quality food businesses struggling to survive the COVID-19 crisis by connecting their take-out or delivery options directly to consumers.	EU & UK
Keep Small Strong	Keep Small Strong is a collective effort to help save as many small businesses across America as possible during the COVID-19 crisis. The initiative allows any small business owner to apply for assistance, as well as a marketplace to connect small businesses with their local communities.	United States
Mainstreet	Mainstreet showcases businesses that are still open in Montreal, providing essential services or allowing people to order online. The French version is also available at www.rueprincipale.app.	Canada
Things That Are Open	Things That Are Open is an online site and live resource that allows all the businesses in a community to let people know how and if they are staying open during the pandemic and what they are doing to stay safe.	Canada
Covid Support	Catalog all financial resources & information for Canadians from diverse sources (government or private institutions) in a simple and user friendly site.	Canada
Steun Ze	Support Them (i.e., Steun Ze) is an online resource for Flemish people who want to help their community and find different ways to help people, organizations and companies.	Belgium
Kawalcovid19	The site educates the public to prepare themselves for the eventual arrival of COVID-19 in Indonesia by informing them about the nature of the disease, how it spreads, precautions to take, and learning points from other countries, as well as practical guides related to COVID-19.	Indonesia
COVID19 India	COVID19 India aggregates all the information regarding COVID-19 across India into a single site to make it easier for people to find and refer to important content and stats, as well as helpline numbers and restaurants and shops that are open by location.	India

 

“We created Steun Ze to offer a better way for people to search how they can help others during this crisis.” – Dries Vints, software engineer and creator of Steun Ze

 

“Aside from the team we’ve assembled, we think the quickest way to flip the script is to make as many people as possible aware of why and how they should support their local small businesses. We simply can’t let them fail.”  – Adam Grohs, founder of Keep Small Strong

 

Many other projects are still in the works and will be up shortly, so please check here for the latest sites and help spread the word, especially if they can help in your own community.

In addition, Algolia is providing this plan to developers participating in projects related to the #BuildforCOVID19 hackathon which “is an opportunity for developers to build software solutions that drive social impact, with the aim of tackling some of the challenges related to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”

Here are some of our growing list of Algolia customers also taking action.

Customer	Description
BD.com	BD is a global medical technology company that is providing valuable, searchable COVID-19-related healthcare and medical information, resources, and notices related to medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care.
Coursera	Coursera’s Coronavirus Response Initiative is making Coursera for Campus available at no cost to any impacted university or college to help minimize the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on students.
Decathlon	Decathlon is providing its Easybreath snorkel masks along with “technical assistance exploring alterations” for the mask as a potential respirator to help medical professionals and patients.
Domestika	Domestika is providing a selection of free online courses for kids and adults to improve creative skills including drawing, stamping techniques, digital photography, embroidery, and building an online store.
GoFundMe	GoFundMe has launched the Small Business Relief Initiative to supply financial assistance to businesses by providing fundraising tools, resources and grants to help during this pandemic. This initiative helps small businesses empower their communities to rally behind them while providing a quick and easy way to get funds to the businesses in need.
L’Occitane	The L’Occitane Group has distributed moisturizing hand care products to healthcare workers in France, UK, China, and South Korea and has also now committed to help provide hydroalcoholic hand gel free of charge to hospitals and firefighters in France.
LVMH / Dior	The Cosmetics and Fragrances division of LVMH is using its perfume factories to produce hydroalcoholic gel and distributing these valuable supplies free of charge to hospitals.
RxSaver	RxSaver by RetailMeNot™ is a prescription savings program that offers free coupons on medications at all major pharmacies. In addition to the 6,000+ coupons offered, RxSaver has compiled a catalog of COVID-19 resources including ways to save on prescriptions without insurance and finding low cost health care if you’ve recently become unemployed.
Twitch	Twitch hosted a fundraiser on March 28 to support COVID-19-related causes. To support their traffic spikes during the fundraiser, Algolia is also providing 3 DNS servers free of charge.

And if you’d like to discuss with Algolians about your projects, or if you need a virtual coffee break, join our Community thread on our forum.

This is a difficult time for everyone, and we wish the best to you all, especially those affected physically, emotionally, and economically by this pandemic. We also applaud those who are helping out during this time in large and small ways — we are all in this together.

Please be strong and be safe during this time. 

Team Algolia

 

To learn more about how Algolia and other companies are helping during this time, go to our COVID-19 Resources page here.

Note: If you’re interested — or if you know someone who is building COVID-19-related, not-for-profit websites or apps and may benefit from the Algolia program, please email us at support@algolia.com with “COVID-19 Request” in the title.