Safe YOU Mobile App Shields Women Against Domestic Violence

When Attorney Tsira Jgerenaia got a call from a 26-year-old mother of a toddler saying she had received death threats from her former husband, refusing to appeal to the police, she recommended the young mother to download the Safe YOU mobile App for her protection.

“Two days after she downloaded the app, she was attacked by her former husband while she and her three-year-old toddler were around a kindergarten. He demanded the child to follow him, and when the child refused, he grew aggressive, started shouting, cursing and when he hit her in the face, she pressed Safe YOU app’s SOS button–he snatched her phone not realizing that she had already alerted the police. He remained at the scene, the police arrived and apprehended him at the crime scene,” says Jgerenaia who, based in Democratic Republic of Georgia’s capital city, Tbilisi, has for the last three years provided legal aid to victims of violence at Union Sapari–one of Georgia’s leading women’s rights protection NGOs and the first to partner and actively promote the Safe YOU app in Georgia.

Developed across the border in Armenia, Safe YOU’s multi-functional mobile application safeguards women against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), while providing community and knowledge-based empowerment. The Safe YOU journey began in 2018 when the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, a technology business incubator and IT development agency, won the World Bank Group and Sexual Violence Initiative ‘Development Marketplace for Innovation in GBV Prevention and Response’ award for Geeks against GBV project. Following this the winners, a women-led team, researched and designed the concept of the Safe YOU application.

“After weeks of technical development, translations, and design we successfully launched the app, giving our Georgian partners a segregated database to manage their content–including forum posts, and support service providers which, each country manages by a locally licensed partner,” explains social entrepreneur Mariam Torosyan, project team leader that developed the mobile solution, and Founder/CEO of the Impact Innovations Institute (IMIN) which launched Safe YOU in 2020. Torosyan is proud to be managing a team of four women, ages 22-32. With a background in Human Rights Law and Anthropology, she is a Lecturer of Healthcare Law at Armenia’s Yerevan State Medical University. 

Launched in Armenia in May 2020, Safe YOU scaled to Georgia in July with Union Sapari as its first implementing partner. Amidst the pandemic that spiked GBV incidents, the app was a timely resolve–and now has 5,000 active users and 17 consultants in Georgia.

Partnering countries pay either monthly, or an annual flat, technical support fee. 

Saving Lives: Protection, Prosecution, Prevention

“The app is already saving lives–we were expecting this in two years, but in five months it was already saving lives,” Torosyan sites the case of the 26-year-old Georgian woman and her toddler, now represented by Jgerenaia. 

Launching amidst a pandemic, and months prior to the 44-day war with neighboring Azerbaijan, challenged funding and promotion of the app in Armenia. The app already has over 500 users in Armenia–ages 20 to 35–and seven consultants. Torosyan has established cooperation with the World Bank and UNICEF and is supported by UNFPA and EU offices of Armenia. Safe YOU plans to target adolescent girls and increase its user base in Armenia to over 100,000 by early next year.

Users can simply download the free app with verification linked to their cellphone number, last name, and a nickname. Internet connectivity is needed, but Safe YOU covers SMS message costs.

“When in danger, users press the prominent HELP button to send up to seven free alert SMS and their geo-location to three pre-selected groups which include: up to three personal contacts, three service providers (women support organizations and state authorities), and the Police,” Torosyan says since abusers usually access or control their partner’s mobile phone, the app has two security levels designed to minimize discovery risk. Safe YOU designed user-centered advanced security functions remain undisclosed to safeguard current users of the application.

The HELP button automatically enables up to one minute of audio recording–most critical since most often victims are alone with the perpetrator and unable to produce tangible evidence for legal actions. The recording is also valuable for psychological consultations.

“Audio recording of the app was acquired and added to my client’s case as a pivotal piece of evidence. In this case the police caught the abuser red-handed, obtained the audio recording from the app at the crime scene, and the victim received timely assistance,” explains Jgerenaia who as the young mother’s attorney, submitted the recording to the court as evidence which helped bring charges against the abusive former husband.

The app’s business model enables analytics and platforms which NGOs can use to reach their target audiences. It also includes secured push notifications on forums and organizations. Users can also communicate with the Safe YOU team via text, email, Facebook or Instagram pages.

 Overcoming The Shadow Pandemic

The pandemic lockdown has further exacerbated GBV worldwide, creating a “shadow pandemic” for women who are now more isolated and unable to seek help. OSCE data shows 60% of Armenian women experienced domestic violence at least once, while 50% of men admit to having controlling behavior over their mates. In 2020 over 2,600 callouts in Armenia were domestic violence related, with most ending in warnings–compared to 84 reported GBV cases the previous year, according to an Open Democracy report. As in all patriarchal societies, high instances of GBV are tolerated, and legal systems are usually lenient of male’s aggressive behaviors.

Armenia is among the 45 signatory countries of the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe convention against GBV. In 2017, Armenia’s parliament passed a law on Domestic Violence, in face of pressures from the European Commission curtailing a human rights grant–but it is drastically different from the original GBV prevention draft bill initiated by the Women’s Rights Centre, now part of Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women. The authorities thought the original bill hindered family values.

The Safe YOU team is collaborating with local stakeholders including over 15 women’s rights support NGOs, shelters, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and the Human Rights defender of the Republic of Armenia. The app offers a list of up-to-date, consolidated, and mapped information of women’s support organizations, shelters and state authorities. Most women’s shelters and services across Armenia, however, don’t operate on a 24/7 basis. 

The app’s ‘safe space’ allows anonymous engagement in peer-to-peer discussions and Forums; and users can seek consultations, ask questions, or get urgent help from fully vetted and verified professionals as psychologists, doctors, and lawyers–in curated forums. NGOs can also endorse consultants or use the mobile app to apply to become consultants.

“Our vision for the future of Safe YOU is to enable real-time statistics and data analysis to help optimize solutions to tackle GBV with mapping of cases, analysis of information availability and accuracy in different communities of women,” explains Torosyan who hopes that the provision of the data will also be effective for policy makers, international and local stakeholders. 

Current negotiations between Safe YOU and several governmental and non-governmental organizations in the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa will potentially lead to the launch of the app in over five countries this year–and an additional 10 in 2022.

Free YOU Women’s Economic Empowerment Solution

“We have something special that will accelerate our global expansion–our next product line is an economic empowerment solution for women, called Free YOU. Our product concept is ready, and along with World Fair Trade Organization-Asia we are applying to additional funding for both solutions,” Torosyan hopes to scale the product globally while ensuring quality engagement for the users, and instrumentality for the stakeholders.

Her team will empower women with knowledge, provide space to incubate their ideas, support them through the value chain–and provide the marketplace for “an economic environment where women uplift other women.” Torosyan is preparing to pitch Free YOU to relevant institutions knowing its significant value, since lack of economic independence only increases the prevalence of domestic violence.

Investing in women’s economic empowerment paves a direct path towards gender equality, poverty reduction, and inclusive economic growth, says Torosyan. The Free YOU app’s functionalities will provide women and girls with a wide range of resources from education and childcare resources to economic support and activities to job opportunities. Up-skilling the marginalized, vulnerable, poverty-stricken women with empowered economic status, will lessen financial dependence on partners who may be abusive. It will also embolden women to make more informed decisions to uplift their own socio-economic status.

“We believe this app will also help the recently displaced Armenian women in the post-war crisis, and women in other countries where we hope to expand and scale this solution,” says Torosyan.

Jgerenaia considers her client’s case as a perfect example of how Safe YOU can help combat domestic violence. While the case “has been reinforced with abundant evidence and is pending before the court now” she says the young mother has found a new job, rebuilt relationships with friends, and is living in a “conflict-free environment” which has had a positive psychological effect on both the mother and her child.

“I would recommend the Safe YOU app to every woman, not only those who might face certain threats. The app enables women to receive free, credible advice anonymously from gynecologists, lawyers, psychologists and social workers–critical for every woman. As for those women who are under threat of an attack, the app can serve as self-defense,” believes Jgerenaia. “The fact that the app helped my client and her minor child escape violence and live in a safe, conflict-free environment, is paramount to me. I am in touch with her frequently and know that she feels good as her life has improved. I wish every woman in the world could have a similar achievement.”