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World Action Fund (WAF)

Is a Non-Governmental Organization, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the complete elimination of poverty, health, environmental conservation and climate change in Uganda and South Sudan

World Action Fund is developing Safe Travel App. We are living in the age of connectivity, and that means more things than ever before are right at your fingertips — literally. With one press of the button, one swipe left or right, you can open up new worlds in seconds. We’re talking about apps… mobile applications

What to Expect

Mobile app development is serious business. It takes time and patience to create something that truly works and is free of bugs and other issues. Updates are required, but it’s important to start with a sound foundation. At World Action Fund, we believe in a thorough approach that would provide the users with as much engagement as they request

Existing challenge 

According to the United Nations statistics, nearly 1.25million people are killed and up to 50 million people are injured on the world’s roads every year. World Health Organization data published in 2017 shows that road traffic accidents in Uganda alone rank 6th worldwide, with a death rate of 45.69 per 100,000 of the population.

The accidents are mainly caused by over-speeding, reckless driving, not abiding by traffic rules and not following road signs. Many of the fatalities end up being caused by delayed emergency response and care system

Road accidents in Uganda cost the government UGX 4.4 Trillion (USD 1.2 Billion) annually, representing 5% of the nation’s total GDP. Among the key recommendations to solve this problem include:

• Having a robust emergency response and care system to address the high number of road injuries.
• Addressing capacity constraints of the road safety management institutions, so they can address severe road crash challenge.
• Prioritizing road safety and focus on provision of technical assistance, financial and political commitment to optimize benefits of the investment made in the development of road transport infrastructure.

​Reports indicate that in the last decade, the recorded road accident fatalities in Uganda rose from 2,579 ​to 3,503 in 2016, representing a 25.9% increase. This is as a result of:

• Weak leadership for road safety
• ​Declining priority of allocation of resources
• Diminishing capacity for road safety interventions mainly driven by low commitment to road safety matters
• Reduced interest of development partners in road safety and Non-participation of key stakeholders

Proposed timely pre-hospital care when administered can reduce injury severity and reduce the trend of road traffic injury deaths by saving lives, treating injuries efficiently and effectively, preventing infections and injury-related diseases as well as preventing disabilities. This is why some research has called for the establishment of structured and organized trauma care systems as one way of averting avoidable deaths in Kampala and else-where. ​

With the SafeTravel application, once emergency contacts and first responders ​are notified of an accident, the time it takes for the casualty to receive the assistance they need is significantly reduced. The time in minutes/hours saved translates into the difference between losing or saving a life

How can SafeTravel save lives?

The time between someone suffering an accident and it´s being notified to an emergency service is fundamental to save lives. Several reports claim that 1 in 10 deaths could have been saved if an automatic notification system were implemented. With SafeTravel, an accident is notified in a matter of seconds allowing the user to quickly call emergencies which highly increases chances of survival of the victims with the reduced emergency response time.

Framework

The process of creating an app requires a sitemap and wireframes. Think of this as the structural integrity of a skyscraper. It is important to work out issues in this early stage rather than later down the road. Here are some highlights of this process:

Functionality and content:

• Wireframes, the structural core of the app
• Branding and integration of existing digital platforms (i.e., web and email)
• User Experience and User Interface, or UX and UI — essentially, how users interact with the app, what makes it easy to use and desirable

SAFETRAVEL FEATURES

SafeTravel is the ideal accident emergency app for Ugandans. It would contain everything users might need in case of a road accident emergency.

The app would use G-force measurements to determine when crashes take place (but don’t worry, stopping fast or dropping your phone won’t set off an alert).

Before the user begins driving, they open the app, and then in the event of a collision, emergency services will be immediately dispatched. Users can also set the app to alert friends and family in the event of a crash. SafeTravel would be available to use while riding motorcycles, bikes, and by passengers in any type of vehicle.

SafeTravel automatic car crash impact detection:

The app would automatically detect car accidents and send an SMS notification with the location of the car crash to emergency contacts that the user has previously selected, allowing them to call rescue services in no time. This enormously reduces the rescue time increasing the survival chances of casualties and saving thousands of lives every year.

 

Help button:

Press the help button and the app will send the user’s location to emergency contacts. This allows contacts to assist as soon as possible.

Nearby hospitals/medical centres list:

When in an emergency every second matters. That’s why SafeTravel would allow users to check nearby hospitals with a single click, and even show the fastest route to take.

Approximate address:

If a casualty needs help they must be able to communicate their location​ as quickly as possible.

How does it detect car accidents?

The application would basically detect car accidents using the internal sensors (Accelerometer and GPS) of the user’s smartphone. During a severe car crash, every single thing inside the car is subjected to high changes in speed, suffering massive accelerations that could reach up to 200 times that of gravity. Nowadays smartphones are equipped with sensors that can measure accelerations, known as the accelerometer. This is the same sensor that is used to rotate your screen. Using this sensor output and a detection algorithm, the app would detect if the user has been in a car accident. The algorithm ensures that “false positives” (false crash alerts cause by dropping you phone, for example) are eliminated through testing and experimenting with the technology. This will be the most fundamental technical challenge when putting together the SafeTravel App.

Testing and launch

Once the SafeTravel app is built and ready to launch, World Action Fund would need to collaborate on a marketing strategy. After all, just because all the investment, time and money has been put into the app, it doesn’t mean anyone will know it exists unless we tell them.

Purchase

Users in Uganda will be required to download SafeTravel for a small fee yet to be established. The police authorities will be the targeted users of the desktop (web) platform version of SafeTravel, where they can monitor traffic emergencies 24/7. As we continue to expand and perfect the technology, we hope to outsource our app software to other countries, starting with Uganda’s neighbors and eventually goes globally. Users in these countries will also be able to download the app for a fee.

Donation platform

SafeTravel app would include a donation platform which users can access, where contributions are aimed towards maintaining the operational costs of running the app. Donations would be made via mobile money and online banking services.

We call upon development partners  to support us to develop this App.

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