A group of Bahrain-based students has launched an online resource platform to give back to the community during this uncertain time, shining a spotlight on the important role of youth-led innovation in national resilience.
New Millennium School (NMS) grade 11 pupils Dhyan Shaji, Avinash Nambiar, Ahmed Riyaan and Merwyn D’Souza designed DIRA – a non-profit student-led portal, featuring important information useful during emergencies.
Since the Iranian attack on the region began more than two weeks ago, several individuals and families in the kingdom have been displaced. There have also been some civilian injuries and deaths due to the air strikes and falling debris from missile interceptions.
DIRA, which means ‘home’ or ‘region’, recognises the need for clear, accessible and verified information during such a time. It provides emergency navigation for hospitals and shelters and verified news feed from official sources. Additionally, users can access survival guidelines for various emergency situations and an evacuation checklist, among other information.
The website began as a passion project for the 17-year-olds but quickly evolved into a mission – using their technical skills to serve the kingdom. DIRA is also available as a web application, which is accessible via web on a smartphone.
“As Indian students who have grown up in Bahrain, we consider this island our home, and were inspired to use our technical skills to give back to the community,” Avinash told the GDN. “We noticed that during a crisis, misinformation spreads faster than the truth. We wanted to build a ‘single source of truth’,” he added.
The Manama resident, who aspires to pursue a career in cybersecurity, started teaching himself how to code some years ago. He experimented with basic elements and has also built a study application.
The initial prototype took about two weeks of intensive coding and planning, noted aspirant pilot Merwyn from Mahooz, who is responsible for ensuring all the information on the English-language website is correct. “We are constantly iterating (optimising) and had three different prototypes, before getting our own domain,” he said.
NMS student council president Dhyan from Zinj recounted that their biggest challenge was trust and privacy.
“We knew people wouldn’t use a safety app if they felt tracked. We overcame this by engineering a Security-by-Design architecture,” he explained, highlighting that the application does not collect personal information nor tracks the user.
Additionally, the platform has an SOS feature for situations when the user might be trapped, out-of-sight or stuck in a blackout, which triggers a high-decibel, high-frequency distress signal.
“On clicking the SOS feature, a signal between 3,000Hz to 4,000Hz will be produced. It is the same frequency as a baby’s cry and will alert the closest rescue team,” revealed the robotics enthusiast, who dabbled into coding as a hobby four years ago.
Since then, Dhyan has built many websites and applications for his school and local community. He and Avinash are responsible for DIRA’s technical development. Dhyan also worked with Riyaan to design the project’s logo, which depicts a white-cheeked bulbul, Bahrain’s national bird, protected by a hand. The Bahrain flag in the background symbolises patriotism.
“We are seeking official technical validation from the National Cyber Security Council and local telecom companies to make the platform ‘data-free’ during emergencies,” Riyaan said, speaking about the project’s next phase. The aspirant mechanical engineer from Sehla revealed that there are plans to integrate other languages into the app to make the platform more widely accessible.
DIRA’s major features
* Emergency Navigation: Real-time paths to verified shelters and hospitals across the kingdom.
* Verified News Feed: A curated stream of information from official government and national news sources to combat misinformation.
* Privacy-First Tech: A Progressive Web App that requires no download, no sign-up and maintains a strict zero-data collection policy to ensure total user trust.
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