Real Helping Hands looks to revolutionise fund-raising online

Local software engineer Sadikie Williams says he was moved to create the crowdfunding platform, Real Helping Hands (RHH), after seeing a picture of a young person from the community of his youth, McGreggor Gully in Kingston, looking at other children using tablets.

"He was just there looking through the window because he doesn't have a tablet, but he sees other kids using tablets. So they were able to go to school but he wasn't able to go to school online. When I saw that, it touched me and I wanted to give back, but I wanted to give back on a large scale," Williams told THE STAR.

At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and tablets, computers and smartphones became important learning aids. However, due to significant decline in economic activities, many families were unable to provide devices for their children. Fund-raising, through crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe, became a new norm.

Williams said he wanted to find ways to help his struggling countryman. The photo of the youth in McGreggor Gully, he said, did a lot to direct his mind and energies to the creation of RHH, which allows people to raise money online, directly from Jamaica and anywhere in the world.

"I decided to fix a problem that I see in the Caribbean, where they don't have a crowdfunding platform, and then try to mobilise the communities to raise funds," the software engineer said.

Though crowdfunding is not a new phenomenon, Jamaicans hoping to use the ones already in existence, like GoFundMe, must first have access to bank accounts and addresses in the United States or any of the 19 other countries that it is accessible in.

"We intentionally decided to launch from Jamaica first and then we reached out to the other Caribbean islands and asked them to use the platform, but we wanted to be a model so that they could see how to use the platform from the Jamaicans," he said.

Launched in 2020, RHH only requires users to input their names, phone numbers and email addresses to register to use the platform.

"After you have registered with us then you get a form to fill out online to create your campaign. You create your campaign, you raise your funds. At the end of the campaign or when you are ready to withdraw your funds, then we are gonna ask you for your Jamaican national ID and for your bank account information."

Unlike other platforms, RHH allows persons to make multiple withdrawals from whatever point during your fund-raising, regardless of whether or not you have met your goal.

"The model is that we wanted to be convenient. We want something that is different," Williams said.

"One of the big things that we're trying to do is we're trying to get more university students. If someone can actually use the platform to raise US$1,000, that's basically a student's school fee for the year. If there's an accident you can raise funds for the medical bills associated with the accident. If someone dies then you can use our platform to raise funds for the family and for the funeral expenses for that family. Basically those three categories we want to really push for persons to use us for," Williams said.