Project Overview

Tearfund is an international development charity with over 50 years of experience working in underserved communities across more than 50 countries. They tackle poverty through three main approaches: humanitarian response to disasters and conflicts, community development partnerships that empower local communities, and advocacy work that challenges unjust policies at local, national and global levels. Their goal is to end extreme poverty by working directly with local partners and organizations.

Working with Liquona, I designed and built an interactive donation visualization platform for Tearfund’s “Light Up The World” campaign that transforms charitable giving into a spectacular audio-visual celebration.

Donors who contribute financially or provide contact information can press a game-show-style button on a custom plinth, triggering synchronized animated celebrations across all installations across the UK.

The system combines custom hardware with real-time web applications to visualize donation impact across 50 countries through a dynamic world map that literally lights up as donations flow in.

Technical Implementation

The real-time distributed system features custom-fabricated hardware with embedded microcomputers and physical donation buttons that communicate via web sockets and RESTful APIs.

The frontend uses Vue 3/TypeScript with Phoenix WebSocket channels for real-time synchronization across multiple installations.

Phoenix LiveView powers a remote administration dashboard enabling Tearfund staff to monitor all installations in real-time. The platform tracks measurable outcomes (lives transformed and communities empowered) making charitable impact tangible through compelling progress visualizations that help participants visualize the global impact of their donations.

Thoughts and feelings

I am happy to have been involved in this project, developing technology that enables positive global change is rewarding to me.

The project presented several interesting technical challenges spanning hardware fabrication, network reliability, real-time application development, and user experience design. I’m particularly proud of the custom electronics work, designing and building physical interfaces that integrate microcomputers with intuitive user interactions, creating genuine emotional connections between donors and the communities they’re helping.