PanicosGr app allows women in danger to call for immediate help

A new free mobile app PANICosGR, created by Christos Apostolou, allows users in Greece to send an automated message to a default contact if they need immediate help or if they feel they are in danger.

2021 saw a significant number of incidents involving violence towards women and an increasing number of femicides.  In 2020 the number of offenses related to domestic violence in Greece was more than three times greater than in 2010.

According to a report from the Guardian, feminist groups estimate that at least one woman in Greece dies at the hands of a man each month, often their partner or ex-partner. Of the 11 victims of femicide so far this year, two had previously tried to report their attacker for domestic violence before they were murdered, but none of the men had been charged or convicted. A third woman in the coastal city of Volos was in the process of trying to obtain a restraining order when she was stabbed to death by her ex-husband.

The application uses mobile messages to automatically send a notification to the selected emergency contact, along with the sender’s location. At the same time, audio recording from the mobile will be activated for one minute. “I thought it could be used as evidence,” Apostolou explains. 

The app is available for free on the Google Play Store.

[With information from Kathimerini Greece and The Guardian]