Interview with Oscar Tark, Creator of Prana Deutschland, a Platform for the Homeless
Today, we would like to share a special story with you. It is a story of Prana Deutschland, a platform for the homeless, and its creator, Oscar Tark. Oscar describes himself as a social entrepreneur, coder, and a creative generalist. We met him by chance this summer when our team traveled to Germany on business. Now, we would love to share his story with you and spread the word about this wonderful project that is really worthy of attention and support. Enjoy the reading!
What’s the story behind Prana?
The story behind Prana is that I was in a similar situation myself. I was homeless at some point in my life. So, I had the whole sleeping-on-the-bench kind of experience. And when I started looking for some help online in Germany I couldn’t find anything in English (my German sucks). The English resources were useless, and I couldn’t make sense of the German ones even with the help of Google Translate. So, I started this project to provide one central hub where one can find everything they need. It’s a very scary situation, especially for someone who has just got homeless. They need to know that there is a helping hand and something out there they can turn to. That is why I started the project.
What is the major goal of Prana?
To help people who just got homeless or have been homeless for a while to get the help they need where and when they need it.
Why do you think technology can solve the problem of homeless people?
That’s an interesting question, nobody asked me that. My background is in technology, I’m a programmer. Basically, I’ve always used some sort of technology to solve my problems. I’ve decided to go to the technology root because we’ve entered the technology era where everybody knows how to use a computer. It’s very accessible, anybody can access it from anywhere and especially people who don’t want to be seen in such a situation can just get help from a computer in an Internet cafe. I also went the technology way because any analogous way is outdated and could be called paper waste. So, my way is the most practical, I think.
What technologies do you use to build Prana?
Generally, I am a programmer in the back end and this is the first time I am doing something in the front end. So, I went with what I thought would be the best and I know I’m going completely old school. So, I’m using Core PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. For the database, I use MySQL and Firebase. At the moment, I’m building everything on my own.
What has already been done?
In terms of technology, the website is complete, with 6 sections and 3 languages available. Of course, it’s a very primitive launching stage, but since I am the only guy doing it that’s how it is. From the organizational side, we are currently rebooting the project. So, we’ve had some contact with some organizations and try to get their interest and their collaboration. We’ve not found anything yet.
What feedback and help did you get? What was the reaction of the community?
The project is rebooted now. We did two surveys. There were definitely homeless people who said such a resource would be absolutely useful to them. They said they would use it to find the information they need since they have computer access in the organizations and stuff like that. Of course, there were some who said they preferred paper handouts. In general, we received pretty good feedback from the homeless side and the organizational side was very interested as well. So, we’re getting quite a bit of interest. As for investor side, at the moment we are still searching.
What made the project pause? What didn’t work about the initiatives?
It’s not exactly paused. I’ve finally found a new co-founder and I found a team. The things are finally moving forward and I’m trying to get the project really moving. I’m excited about getting the project done and launching it.
Read the continuation in the full version of the interview on MLSDev blog.
