City of Juarez launches app to keep women safe in fight against disappearances and killings
According to the gender crimes office there have been 308 women reported missing in CD, Juarez in 2017 alone, 279 have been found. To bring those numbers down the city launched “No Estoy Sola” I am not alone, an app that could help women reach out for help if they’re in danger.
Launched Wednesday, No Estoy sola already has more than 1,000 downloads on Android phones.
It allows people to send an emergency text message by just shaking their phones or touching a button to trusted contacts.
“The app is part of a four step plan to protect women in Juarez, especially downtown where more than half of missing women disappear, which will be put in place throughout the year,” Verónica Corchado, director of the City Women’s Institute, explained.
Pink crosses mark the places where women of Juarez have gone missing all over the city, an ongoing problem for years the city is trying to fight; now one of the tools is in the hand of the women themselves,
The city hopes women will load the app when walking alone at night or through places they don’t feel safe, a scenario one student we spoke with said is sadly far too common for the thousands of manufactory workers and university students.
“Sometimes at night my friends and I feel the need to be looking around and watching who is behind us but the app makes us feel safer knowing we can send our location to loved ones in an instant,” said Wendy Hernandez.
“A friend and I were walking home late one night when a truck followed us, sand whenever we looked back at it it would stop. We were scared and had to go into a corner store to wait for the truck to leave,” she said.
Wendy lives by the outskirts of Cd,. Juarez and takes the bus 19 miles down to the farthest university campus, 15 of them south of the Juarez city limits; this semester she’s going to be taking late classes and coming home at night.
As the app starts gaining speed and more people install it, the women’s institute hopes it has a resounding message: you are not alone.
The app is now available for Android and can be downloaded here, the City Women’s Institute said they are pending approval on the Apple app store and should take a few days.
