In Quezon City, Philippines, three out of five women experience sexual harassment in public spaces. For girls aged 18 – 24, the prevalence is even higher. As part of UN Women’s Safe Cities Global Flagship Programme Initiative, the Metro Manila Programme held the first-ever hackathon in May 2016, to seek mobile technology solutions to sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in public spaces. In partnership with the Quezon City Local Government, UN Women brought together 56 seasoned and emerging hackers in Metro Manila to “use their powers for good” in a 24-hour hacking session at the Korea Philippines IT Training. The Safe Cities Hackathon challenged tech experts to develop mobile safety apps f to improve reporting and combat street harassment and sexual violence of women and girls in public spaces; find innovative ways to use data; develop offline functions for when the internet is not available; and to create a new stand-alone app for women’s safety in emergency situations.
Clau Yagyagan, 24, who won the “#SafeCitiesHackathon: Tech the Path to Women’s Safety” Professional Category prize with her app “DLock.” The app features an easy-to-use lock screen with one-click buttons to send a message and make a phone call to an emergency contact. It also has a list of city directories to contact police stations, fire stations and hospitals in a specific city. The app has a reporting feature that allows a user to post messages and connect with other users of the app who are within a set radius, and request help if needed.
For the “Students” category, the Lester’s Pips team of hackers won with their ScAFE app, which is able to show the user where the safe points are in an area, such as the nearest and most crowded places based on the user’s location. The user can also send a message to the nearest patrol area or alert family members and friends if she is experiencing harassment.
See more at this 19 July 2016 article from UN Women: