Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre (SG), in collaboration with the Democratic

Commission on Human Development (DCHD) and with the support of the European Union
has been working with women human rights defenders (W/HRDs) from civil society by
enhancing knowledge of women and girls’ rights in Pakistan and building linkages with
government and private service providers to allow improved access to rights and freedoms by
women and girls. Under this project, Securing Activists for Freedom and Empowerment of
Women and Girls (SAFE), SG has undertaken to provide W/HRDs with strategies to secure
themselves as well as survivors/victims.

As part of this project, we have developed a referral directory with a corresponding mobile
phone application called Humqadam that provides contact information regarding services that
respond to cases of violence against women and girls and other human rights violations. The
application has been developed with the technical assistance of Technology for People
Initiative (TPI) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Humqadam
includes information about police and law enforcement, government helplines,
ministries and commissions as well civil society organizations that provide legal aid,
psycho-social support at national, provincial level as well as in eight districts (Peshawar,
Mardan, Lahore, Vehari, Quetta, Jaffarabad, Karachi and Hyderabad). The aim of the
directory and the mobile phone application is to facilitate W/HRDs as well as women
survivors of violence in securing themselves and their rights. The information for the
directory was collected directly from institutions and individual actors which includes women
shelter staff, departments of police and health, hospitals, lawyers, journalists and civil society
organizations (CSOs) with the hope that this directory will provide multi-sectoral referral
pathways for ensuring timely services to victims of violence as well as W/HRDs. The
application provides access to services with pin-dropped locations, and step-by-step guidance
for either preventing or addressing VAW/G.

At present, a beta version of the Humqadam phone application is available in English only
and will be available to download at the launch event in Islamabad. The Urdu version of the
application is currently under development.

The application has been designed so as to allow room for future expansion and Shirkat Gah
hopes to continue adding more services and districts over the course of time so as to make the
application as efficient as possible for survivors and HRDs across the country. In addition,
the English and Urdu App will be adapted for non-android phones that women are more
likely to have access to.