Salva
Salva is a platform that comprises community-based social networking, real-time crime mapping, an emergency recording feature, and professional consultation services.
Studies have shown that in countries like Peru, 7 out of 10 women have experienced street harassment, and globally, 81% of women and 43% of men have faced some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. Salva is designed to encourage and protect individuals, particularly young women to actively combat these disruptive social issues.
Salva is an app that takes on harassments through four main functionalities:
An emergency audio recorder that allows users to quickly start recording audio by holding the app icon on the home screen. Users have the option to share their audio location with the community and send notifications to designated contacts.
A real-time crime map that allows users to mark potentially dangerous locations and provide evidence such as photos and videos for reference.
A community forum where users can share their experiences and provide support to one another in overcoming traumatic events. The forum is designed to protect user identities.
A professional network that connects users with therapists and lawyers who can provide additional support.
Salva is for everyone, particularly those who have been victims of sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, and other forms of misconduct. The features on Salva impact users’ experience in different ways.
Also, governments can receive the data collected from the app and it could be used to improve their security systems and make better sanctions for people who have broken rules and codes of conduct.
Lastly, recent graduates such as therapists and lawyers can offer their services on Salva. This will help them to get working experience and at the same time will be helping people who might require their services.
Natty Laureano: I grew up seeing problems such as sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying, and so far there have not been any meaningful improvements. This led me to think of a solution, given that I experienced some of these problems myself, and I understand how victims feel. Furthermore, I am currently studying programming at university and this knowledge will enable me to develop Salva.
Ed Gu: Growing up in the US/Australia, sexual harassment and bullying at schools are not unheard of. As the designer of the team, I pictured a blueprint of a digital haven for people to learn, have fun, and share. In this project, I assisted Natty with the user research, interface design, and graphic design of Salva.
We have done research, including reading articles that made studies on social problems, so we know what groups are more vulnerable. These groups are often those such as children, women, LGBTQ community members, among others. Therefore, parents, teenagers and young adults are potential users of Salva.
- Other: Addressing an unmet social, environmental, or economic need not covered in the four dimensions above.
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
Our solution is very versatile and it addresses the social problem of sexual harassment and bullying, just by using an app.
Nowadays there are different social media apps; however, user profiles are public and people do not feel confident enough to comment on what happened to them, but if they had an app where they can talk freely about a bad situation they experienced, then Salva can make that possible because this app lets people have anonymous accounts, and their real information is private. Besides, over the last few years, more people can afford having smartphones and access to the internet; so they can use Salva as a way to ask for help quickly, other users can offer support and victims can receive help immediately.
For the next year, we plan on promoting the platform on college and high school campuses to increase awareness of the app and test its ability to enhance safety for students. Our goal by the end of 2023 is to finish the prototype and release the alpha version of the app. Our impact objectives for the first year of launching Salva include: improving safety on public transportation, reducing instances of sexual harassment in public spaces, raising awareness about the importance of stopping sexual harassment, increasing confidence and safety for young people, and decreasing instances of bullying and discrimination.
To complete the objectives, we aim to recruit new members and expand our team, carry out multiple user research and testing projects, and seed up on the programming of the app.
Salva is an app that will be storing users’ data in a cloud hosting platform; it will be available for Android and IoS. The existing core technology is the Internet that will allow the app to connect users.
- Software and Mobile Applications
- Peru
Salva is still in the prototype stage, but it is expected that it will serve more than 10 000 people.
Mainly, there are financial barriers for developing the app and its publicity campaign, also contacting reliable organizations from other countries that would like to implement Salva there.
Salva is not only a free app for users, but also it is an app that provides advertising placements for businesses and independent professionals.
Service of online advertisement for businesses like health centers and law firms. Many small businesses like these do not have enough reach to potential clients who would be users of Salva.
Service of weekly/monthly/yearly cases report for governments. This includes the quantity of help requests, complaints and suggestions from citizens to measure how safe cities are, and analyze viable ways to improve their security systems.
The professional service section connects users to professionals like lawyers or therapists who provide affordable sessions and consultations for young people.
Possible implementation of smart bracelets that work similarly to Salva app, reducing time when requesting for help.
In order to afford the expenses of Salva, we consider the following:
Service of ads sponsorship, only for businesses such as law firms or health centers that are interested in advertising their services.
We aim to build reciprocal relationships with the professionals in the consultation section. With a small amount of service fee, we can expose a greater number of users to the professionals.
Service contracts to governments. This service consists of providing to the government a week, month or year report of all cases from their citizens. Also, Salva could get sponsored by them.
We are also open to receive donations and grants.
The future implementation of the sale of smart bracelets, will help compensate expenses for their production and maintenance of Salva app.