It's a sad truth that I, along with many other women I'm sure, feel unsafe walking alone at night. This means we often go to considerable lengths to make ourselves feel better protected - like carrying mace (that's me), or holding keys between our fingers like a 'weapon'.
ROAR for Good is an organisation dedicated to 'revolutionising the world of women's safety' and addressing the 'underlying causes of violence' and have developed 'Athena', a wearable tech device designed to reduce attacks against women and help with personal safety.
Athena is about the size of a £2 coin and can be clipped on to your clothing, bag or worn around your neck. It has two modes: the 'alarm mode' which causes the device to light up, emit an alarm and message your friends and family with your immediate location. The second is 'silent mode' which messages your contacts for 'discrete activation'; useful for when the wearer doesn't want a person to be aware that they've alerted someone. Your emergency contact list is create via an app on your phone, which syncs with the device.
There's currently an Indiegogo campaign to fund the production of Athena which has already smashed it's target of $40,000 by 342%, proving the staggering demand for a product like this. Whilst it's really positive that so many people want to see the device realised, it's also incredibly disheartening, albeit not at all surprising, that there is such a big market for making products that help to make women feel safer.
Reassuringly, ROAR don't simply want to create werable technology - they want to get to the root of the problem by working with non-profit organisations to educate children and young people in empathy and healthy relationships. Their ultimate goal? That devices like Athena won't be necessary. Amen to that.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.