Dignity,verified.
OBS Indigent is a quieter way to prove need. A human-centered platform that helps municipalities, NGOs, and social services verify indigent households — with care, clarity, and consent at every step.
Verifying a household
Every signal is checked against consent — never scraped, never sold.
- Identity confirmedID 8402*******
- Income threshold met< R 3,800 / mo
- Address acknowledgedDwelling matched
- Household noted4 dependants
- Consent capturedSigned, with voice
- Family of 5· Khayelitsha, ZAWater rebate2 min ago
- Elder, alone· Soweto, ZAUtility relief4 min ago
- Single parent· Kingston, JMSchool subsidy6 min ago
- Household of 4· Nairobi, KEHealth card7 min ago
- Family of 3· Polokwane, ZAFood relief9 min ago
- Youth carer· Lagos, NGHousing support11 min ago
- Family of 6· Dar es Salaam, TZWater rebate12 min ago
- Disabled adult· Durban, ZATransport pass14 min ago
- Family of 5· Khayelitsha, ZAWater rebate2 min ago
- Elder, alone· Soweto, ZAUtility relief4 min ago
- Single parent· Kingston, JMSchool subsidy6 min ago
- Household of 4· Nairobi, KEHealth card7 min ago
- Family of 3· Polokwane, ZAFood relief9 min ago
- Youth carer· Lagos, NGHousing support11 min ago
- Family of 6· Dar es Salaam, TZWater rebate12 min ago
- Disabled adult· Durban, ZATransport pass14 min ago
We measure needwithout measuring worth.
The old systems were built to catch fraud. OBS Indigent is built to find people. Four principles, written in the open, reviewed every quarter by the people we serve.
- 01
Plain language, always.
No jargon, no forms in triplicate. OBS Indigent speaks in the applicant’s language — twelve of them — and never asks for what the state already knows.
- 02
Consent is the contract.
Every signal is collected only after an explicit, revocable yes. Applicants keep a living record of what was shared, with whom, and why.
- 03
Decisions, not verdicts.
A person reviews every edge case. OBS Indigent’s role is to gather the truth — never to replace the judgment of a caseworker.
- 04
Built for the long walk.
Verification isn’t a checkpoint; it’s a relationship. Households can re-enter their dossier any time, from any phone, even offline.
Three movements, one household at a time.
OBS Indigent replaces the queue with a conversation. Below is the entire shape of a verification — nothing hidden, nothing padded.
- i.
A quiet intake.
An applicant — or a fieldworker beside them — opens OBS Indigent from any phone. We ask only what the state cannot already confirm, in plain language, with voice and photo as valid signatures.
3 – 6 minutes · works offline - ii.
Signals gathered with consent.
OBS Indigent reaches out, on their behalf, to the registries they authorise — revenue, utilities, home affairs — and returns a single, reviewable dossier. No re-keying, no lost receipts.
12 registries · one consent - iii.
A human decides.
A caseworker approves, asks for a softer follow-up, or escalates. The applicant is told the outcome — and the reason — before anyone else. Relief follows in hours, not months.
Median time-to-relief: 11h
The quiet shape of what we've done.
- since 2023
- 1.4M
- down from 94 days
- 11h
- across 3 continents
- 214
- by design, not luck
- 0
In good company —
- City of Cape Town
- eThekwini
- UN-Habitat
- GiveDirectly
- Mastercard Foundation
- Nairobi County
- IRC
- World Bank — ID4D
“The first time in twenty-one years that someone asked me what I needed — and then, quietly, listened to the answer. The rebate arrived before the kettle boiled.”