To provide a support network for victims of gender violence and to give a local and global response to promote women's autonomy, prevention, and response capacity. This is the objective pursued by the app LilaS, which aims to "empower women to help them find a way out of violence," as explained by two of its promoters, Lucirley Mazera and Laia Sans.
The app, which aims to reach 3,000 users by 2025, is currently in a testing phase, involving 100 women and lasting two months. In the case of LilaS, testing was crucial not only to ensure the correct functioning of the application but also to "ensure there are no security flaws, as it is a very sensitive issue."
The project is based on three pillars: information, reception, and help, as highlighted by its promoters. "Information reaches users through a feed of public conversations, with news and data on various topics," emphasizes Mazera. On the other hand, reception is provided through a network of volunteers who are part of the app, to "help get out of violence." The application also has a function to ask for help in dangerous situations, with which the user can quickly alert their selected contacts.
The application, which has been part of the Gira Mujeres program for women entrepreneurs, is inspired by a similar project in Brazil, where Mazera worked for 20 years as a social worker with vulnerable people and victims of violence. After arriving in Barcelona two years ago, she began a master's degree in social and educational intervention at the UB, where she met Sans, an expert teacher in educational inclusion. Together with social worker Nuria Ibáñez and pedagogue Silvia Fernández, the four launched LilaS, and have been working on the project for a year, within a Barcelona entrepreneurial ecosystem "very technologically relevant," according to Mazera.
To launch the app, the promoters have allocated 120,000 euros of their own funds, mainly for the technical development of the application. LilaS, which will be free for users, bases its business model on subsidies and the support of foundations and public and private entities, which will also have the option to detect cases of harassment. The promoters are working with the goal of starting to receive resources in 2025, to propel the app and to expand the team to make it grow.
The app will include an AI-assisted tool to establish steps to exit the situation of violenceAnd the entrepreneurs have many plans to make it grow and expand its functions: "We have more tools for the future," Sans anticipates. One of them is what they have named the Escape Plan, which helps victims of violence to get out of the situation with a background plan.It does so through 130 questions, which include details such as whether or not she has children, whether she has access to her documentation, whether she has money and a place to stay. Assisted by Artificial Intelligence, this function aims to act as a "guidance tool" that outlines a way out for women in situations of violence.
All with the aim of "encouraging a way out, without imposing it, since each one requires her own time," explains Mazera, who highlights LilaS's desire to "break silences." This will be achieved to the extent that "networks of women are generated," as Sans emphasizes. And it is about "a civic and collective technology that impacts the lives of users and contributes to creating a collaborative network," adds Mazera. As Sans defends, "it is a project that can change realities, and can even save lives."