Roadmap

The core: a map that opens fast on any phone and a bad connection.

• Map of help points by type: shelters, donation points, kitchens and civic initiatives.
• Accent-insensitive search, filters by estado and by type, clustering as you zoom out.
• A card per point with what it receives, what it needs now, how to get there and who to call.
• Local cache: the map opens with the last data even with no connection, and says so.

A map nobody shares helps nobody: the information has to travel where people already are.

• A link per point with a preview card in WhatsApp and Telegram.
• A social image in three formats, with the point's status and date inside the image.
• A “where help is needed” list for anyone who wants to help and does not know where to start.

Publishing fast and publishing well are not the same thing. This phase is what makes the data believable.

• Point status (open, full, closed) and a warning when nobody has confirmed it in days.
• A vetted team that publishes live, with revocable access and a log of every change.
• Public suggestions in a queue: anyone contributes, a person confirms before publishing.
• Data protection by design: the place and the need are published, never the reporter's contact.

An account is not a toll: reading the map stays anonymous forever. The account is for whoever comes back — to follow an initiative and hear from it without having to go looking.

• Follow an initiative and see what it posts in your feed, next to what is nearby.
• Only vetted initiatives post: progress, deliveries made, what is needed today. No open comments at this stage — what is not opened does not need moderating.
• A volunteer profile: what they can help with and when, so a nearby initiative can ask.
• The privacy rule does not move: an email never leaves where it lives, and what reveals where a person goes is seen by nobody but them.

A map initiatives gain nothing by joining ends up with no initiatives. Their profile stops being a record other people fill in and becomes their own space: what they are raising, what they are about to do, and what they already delivered.

• Campaigns with a concrete goal: what it is for, how much is needed, how much is in, and until when. Raising “for the kitchen” moves nobody; “120 mattresses before Friday” does.
• A calendar of what they will do in their community, so the people next door can show up, bring something, or join as volunteers.
• Traceability: every delivery made is published next to the campaign that paid for it. That is what turns “trust us” into something you can look at.
• Visibility: showing up in “Near” for their area, in the feed of whoever follows them, and with their own link to share on WhatsApp.

The pilot starts with the simple, checkable thing: you donate to the initiative you choose, with the details it published itself. HelpMaps does not sit in the middle of the money yet.

• Donate straight to an initiative from its card, with its own payment details and a checkable link.
• Beside it, and separate: the option to chip in to HelpMaps to keep it running. Genuinely separate — different payment details, a different decision — because what is given to an initiative has to reach it whole. This is how this gets paid for while the common fund does not exist.
• Badges for what you did — donate, report a point, show up to volunteer — and a leaderboard for whoever wants to be on it.
• Appearing is optional: you can donate and volunteer without showing up in any list.
• Badges are redeemed for perks at sponsoring businesses: the business puts up the perk, HelpMaps puts up the proof that this person helped.

Locating people is the platform's most delicate use, and it is only switched on where a network exists to confirm every record.

• A list of people attended at a centre, for family reunification.
• A non-negotiable rule: only the minimum needed to recognise someone; no home address, no clinical data.
• Reinforced protection for minors at every layer.
• Private missing-person reports, visible to the team only.

A platform that does not say what keeps it alive ends up living off something it does not mention. Here it is stated: one monthly contribution that arrives split across EVERY initiative, and a declared fee that sustains the platform. It means handling other people's money, so it does not ship until the split can be audited from outside and a payment rail actually exists in the pilot country.

• Volunteer+: a monthly contribution of which 5–10% sustains HelpMaps and the rest goes into the fund.
• An equitable split across active initiatives: one contribution helps all of them at once.
• Absolute transparency by default: how much came in, how much the platform kept, how much each initiative got and on what date. Public, without anyone having to ask.
• The charge: recurring debit is not a solved problem in Venezuela, so the route is a partnership with a local financial institution that operates it. Until that exists, Volunteer+ stays off and the previous phase stands: direct donation.

• Data exchange with other aid platforms, with attribution and an open licence.
• Syncing points from existing local sources, without duplicating anyone's work.
• An operational guide so a new team can stand up its deployment without outside technical help.