When a child goes missing, coordination beats chaos.
SafeZone helps a neighbourhood respond calmly in the first hour: verified neighbours get a precise alert, search zones prevent overlap, and AI helps triage sightings. You report what you see — police lead the recovery.
Report, don't approach. Volunteers share sightings and locations — never confront a child or suspect. Physical recovery is always the job of the police. In an emergency, call 999 / 112.
Figures above are design targets for the MVP — not yet independently measured.
The problem
The first hour decides the outcome. Most of it gets wasted.
When a child goes missing, families call neighbours, post in WhatsApp groups, then drive in circles. Police get involved late, with patchy second-hand details. Witnesses scroll past notices they never see.
SafeZone closes that gap. The moment a parent triggers an alert, verified neighbours within range get a push notification, the search area is split into assigned zones so no street gets searched twice, and a coordinator can brief the police with a clear, structured summary instead of a panicked phone call.
How it works
Four moving parts. Designed to work together in the first 15 minutes.
Instant community broadcast
Verified neighbours within 2km get a high-priority push notification with last-seen location and a one-tap 'I'll help' response.
Coordinated search zones
The search area is auto-split into zones. Volunteers claim a zone — no overlap, no chaos, full coverage in minutes.
AI-matched sightings
A volunteer types what they saw. Gemini compares the description to the child's profile and returns a 0–100 confidence score with reasoning.
Structured handoff to police
When a sighting is strong, SafeZone prepares a clear summary a verified coordinator can share with police. It never replaces calling 999 / 112 — it makes that call faster and clearer.
Report, don't approach. Volunteers report sightings and share locations only — they never confront a child or a suspected person. Physical recovery is always the job of the police. SafeZone is a coordination tool, not a replacement for emergency services.
Built right
Privacy and safety by design.
Photos shown only during an alert
A child's photo is visible to verified volunteers only while an alert is active, then removed when the child is found. We never make it public.
Verified members only
Phone-based verification, neighbourhood join-codes, rate-limited alerts (1 per parent per 4 hours).
Auto-expiring data
Alerts close in 24h. Sighting descriptions are pruned. Every police notification is permanently audit-logged.
100% free stack
$0 to run the MVP. Only cost: a $25 Play Store fee.
Every layer is on a generous free tier so the project can stay community-funded from day one.
About
A Kenyan-built tool for the first hour.
SafeZone is an independent project started in Kenya, built around one belief: when a child goes missing, a calm, coordinated neighbourhood — working with the police, not instead of them — saves time that matters. We're building in the open and actively looking for feedback, partners, and people who care about child safety.
This is an early MVP preview. It is not yet affiliated with any NGO or government body. Reach us at hello@safezone.app — for partnerships, partners@safezone.app.
Take it for a spin.
Walk through a full missing-child alert in under 60 seconds. Tell us what you'd change.