Tuesday, November 5

Create SafeUP with guardians to prevent violence against women

It is to be used when they are afraid and protect each other

Crean SafeUP con guardianas para prevenir la violencia contra mujeres
SafeUp app is now in the US (Courtesy SafeUP)

Photo: Courtesy

Araceli Martínez Ortega

The SafeUP phone application created in Israel to protect women from violence and work in the United United, and it is nothing more than a community of female guardians who connect online to help each other.

“The application is free and allows a woman in danger to share her location with a list of volunteers who are the guardians ”, explains Neta Schreiber, co-inventor of the application Safe UP .

Also works the 24 hours, 7 days a week, as the Guardians are up to 500 meters around (0.3 miles) of any woman at risk. When contacted, the guards will decide to intervene by phone or physically.

“If it is in person, there are three women who arrive at the place in three minutes,” he says .

Schreiber points out that most of the interventions end with a physical accompaniment to the house; or if it is over the phone, it is done by audio or video.

Net Schreiber, President and Co-Founder of SafeUP. (Courtesy SafeUP)

He states that the idea of ​​creating this phone app started two years ago after an incident occurred during a party when, a of her friends disappeared from the group.

“A friend and I got worried and went looking for her. We found her just in the moments before she was raped by two men in one of the rooms of the house. There were clothes on the floor and she was being held by them. When my friend and I walked in, we screwed up their plan. The attackers fled. That is the element with which we build the idea of ​​our application: to be able to disrupt the crime scene. ”

Although the purpose of the application is not that the guards enter private homes, it can also be used in situations of domestic violence.

“There was a case in which a woman who wanted a divorce and feared for her physical integrity, she decided to call the guards, who waited outside the door of the house to support and intervene in case of need. ”

SafeUP gathers thousands of women in its database with the aim of providing security to each other. Women can be members or guardians.

“A percentage of women enrolled volunteer to be gatekeepers, but to be must pass a short training in psychological knowledge and intervention, which empowers them to determine the type of accompaniment they will give and if the intervention of the police is necessary, ”says Schreiber.

The SafeUP application allows you to see who can help a woman in distress. (SafeUP)

Natasha Kirtchuck, SafeUP spokeswoman said the guards must undergo an investigation of his criminal record and verified their identity to check let it be a woman and not a man.

“ The idea is that as soon as a woman gets out of the car or taxi and feels fear, she opens her application to carry it in her hand and share her location. You can call a guardian to feel more comfortable while you get to where you are going ”.

Add that when you open the app, it shows all the female guardians around.

When a woman contacts a guardian, she is not judged, nor is she told that she is hysterical; or they ask why you walk around alone.

The application can also record through the phone’s camera and microphone to collect evidence.

“Most of the calls that users make through of the app occur in situations of insecurity ”, explains Schereiber, who has been recognized by Forbes magazine in the category of Successful people with less than years.

Kirtchuck says that worldwide there are already more than 60, 000 woman res using the SafeUP app. “We are growing very fast. And why do we need an app? … because violence is our reality and we have to take action and build a strong community of women to protect ourselves.”

SafeUP reports that one in three women experience sexual violence in the world.