Paws: Connecting NGOs and Stray Animals in Need

Overview

• Inspiration Behind Paws
• Tech Stack
• How It Works
• Conclusion

Inspiration Behind Paws

so our college every year organises a state level hackathon named Smart Bengal Hackathon and this year we participated in it and i suggested this idea to my team and they liked it and we started working on it. So the idea was to create an app that allows users to report injured stray animals easily, leveraging AI models to detect animal types and injuries. The platform would notify nearby NGOs and hospitals to ensure quick action. We also wanted to integrate donation options to help NGOs with funds, adding value beyond just reporting.We were selected in finals , among 510+ teams we made it to the top 30 teams, which gave us a huge boost of confidence to keep refining and improving the app even though we did not win the hackathon but both the judges praised our idea uniqueness and the impact it can have on the society also UI and the AI model we used for animal detection and injury classification was also praised by the judges.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React.js with Material-UI , tailwindcss to build the UI we used react hooks and context api for state management we also converted the app to PWA for better user experience

• Push Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging Service (FCM) for real-time notifications to NGOs and as well as users

• Backend: Django with Django Rest Framework for the backend we used Django Channels for real-time communication between the frontend and backend

• AI: We used a pre-trained model for animal detection and injury classification, which we fine-tuned on our dataset

How It Works

Paws provides a seamless experience for reporting injured stray animals and connecting them with NGOs and animal hospitals for immediate care. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how the app works:

• User Reports an Incident: Users can report an injured animal by uploading a picture and location is automatically detected using the browser's geolocation API user can also add landmark for better accuracy , and a brief description of the incident. The app uses an AI model to detect the animal type and injury severity which also can be edited by the user if the AI model fails to detect the animal type or injury severity , next the user detals is also shown ( if user is logged in we kept the login optional so that user can report without login ) which user can also change if needed and then the user can submit the report. after the submission the user is shown a success message and some faqs/suggestions on how to help the animal till the NGO arrives

Ngo Dashboard: After the repots are submitted in backend it finds the nearest NGO and sends a push notification to the NGO and the case is assigned to that NGO and the NGO can see the details of the case and can accept or reject the case and they can update the status of that can case which will be also updated in realtime to the user, the NGO can also see thre excat location of the app along with the landmark and link to google maps for navigation

Ngo Analytics: The NGO can also see the analytics of the cases reports per day , per week and per month heatmap of the cases and the most common injury types and animal types, average time taken to resolve a case etc.

Additinally we have donation option where user can donate to a particular NGO or to the app to keep the app running they can also donate to us for the AI model training and maintenance . We have Also added a annoucement section where NGOs can post about their upcoming events or any other important information , raising awareness about animal welfare, raising funds for a particular case etc.

Here is a the process diagram and dataflow diagram of the app to understand visually how the app works

Conclusion

Paws is more than just an app—it's a step toward a more compassionate society by connecting stray animals with NGOs and hospitals for immediate care. From AI-driven animal detection to real-time updates and analytics for NGOs, the platform provides a holistic approach to animal rescue and welfare. The positive feedback we received at the Smart Bengal Hackathon pushed us to continue improving the app, even after the event. While we didn’t win, the journey was immensely rewarding, and we are confident that with further development, Paws can make a real impact.

We encourage developers and animal lovers alike to contribute to this open-source project. Whether it's helping with AI model improvements, optimizing UI/UX, or simply spreading the word, every bit helps.

You can find the project on GitHub:
Paws on GitHub