As the number of children who go missing from their regions continues to increase at an alarming rate, the presence of a streamlined digital solution to this raging problem is imperative. Fortunately, a team of passionate application developers has come up with Mohafiz, an app that enables individuals to search for and share information of underprivileged children who either run away from home or just go missing inexplicably.
As The Express Tribune reports, the Mohafiz team aims to drastically bring down the number of unsolved missing children cases by teaming up with the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB). The app drives this mission by allowing users to seek help from government institutions or report missing children as well as any accidents. Considering that quite a number of children go missing on daily basis in a city like Lahore and their families have a difficult time recovering them, this app goes a long way in removing major obstacles.
The app allows the aggrieved families and friends to broadcast relevant information like age and location where the child was last sighted, along with their contact details, to the entire user base so that someone may be able to give a timely response. It’s like sharing missing person information on a newspaper, except for an app makes that same process much faster and ensures streamlined responses.
CPWB Chairperson Sarah Ahmed explained that her while organization is committed to taking in and supporting any missing children that they come across, the app makes it much easier as citizens can simply share the information of a child that they have found by using this app instead of going to an organization.
According to Mohafiz app developer Ali Yar, there are presently 750 emergency helplines that the team is operating all over the country. He believes that a crucial benefit of the app is that it gives people a readily available platform for reporting missing children or any other related emergencies. He said, “The common citizen is unaware of the relevant organisation that should be called for emergencies related to children.”
Unfortunately, despite the fact that 43% of Pakistanis use a smartphone nowadays, a general lack of awareness means that the user base of Mohafiz is very scant. It is important that people learn about this and other relevant solutions and spread the word so that a positive impact can be made on the lives of every family suffering from the loss of their loved ones.
