A new Web app has come out where volunteers can do tasks for the needy or you can request help personally.

 

If you are looking for help to fix your computer or even get someone to accompany your loved one to the hospital, you might want to consider using a new social volunteering network called Kuiddle. You post your job or task, and then you “pay” the kind person not in money but in time credits.

Supported by the Housing Development Board (HDB), the new app, which took a year to launch, matches volunteers to different tasks that people might need help with. The app also lists job requests from those in the community including the needy and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs). Kuiddle founder, Sunny Tham, hopes to address the current mismatch of volunteers related to this latter group, provide an easy way to crowdsource for help and do it in a more sustainable manner.

The app matches volunteers based on time, skill and location. For example, if the volunteer would like to help elderly, he or she will not be matched with tasks dealing with children. Friends of the volunteer can also see what he or she is up to and join him or her. Volunteers can also join as many communities as they want and start their own community. For those asking for help, they can specify whatever details they might require from the volunteer such as IC details, and they can also ask any questions to the volunteer offline.

Once the task is rendered, the volunteer earns time credits into his or her “piggy bank” where one hour of work equates to 12 time credits. These time credits are determined by the person needing help. Even if you have no time credits, you can still post a task, explained Sunny.

The volunteer can redeem his or her time credits by asking for help for a personal task. He or she can view the number of time credits accumulated on his or her profile, and track his or her “goodness”. Sunny explained that he is hoping to sweeten the “piggy bank” that “in the future, volunteers can redeem their credits for a gift”. The volunteer can also consider donating his or her time credits to a disabled individual or elderly, or to other individuals who are unable to come out of their homes and might want to utilise the credits. Once the task is done, you can rate the volunteer on the app.

Currently, there are less then 50 active volunteers on the site, and some 20 VWOs, shared Sunny.

 

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