A former student at the Erasmus University College in Brussels has developed an app for anyone who ever feels unsafe on the street or when going out. With the ‘SaveMe’ app from Dries Vanmierlo (21) from Bocholt, users can alert their friends or family when they feel threatened. These contacts can then track the user in real time and immediately notify the police if necessary.
The idea for the app came about a year and a half ago, when Dries’s girlfriend was harassed on the street. That incident provoked a strong reaction from him. “From that moment on I knew I wanted to do something to help others,” he says.
At first Dries did not expect that he would be able to develop such an app himself. He considered hiring a professional or using a product studio. But during the last year of his studies in Multimedia and Creative Technology, he gave it a chance. “For my thesis I thought: why not just try it myself?”
Ambiguous
With a lot of dedication and perseverance he achieved his goal. “I worked intensively on it for 10 months,” he says. “The reactions from friends and teachers were very positive. I even got a score of 19/20 from the school.”
Yet Dries experiences these reactions as ambiguous. Although they are nice, they also underline the harsh reality. “I would rather not have had to make this app,” he says. “It is remarkable how much need there is still for these kinds of solutions.”
(Read more below the photo)
Valuable data
The app not only offers help in emergency situations, but also collects valuable data through its use. “This way we can see in which neighborhoods people are being harassed,” he explains. “That information can be very useful for the police.”
The next step is to actually bring the app to market, but that’s not an easy task to accomplish on your own. Dries therefore hopes to work together with other partners to realize this.
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