Over the last few years, countries like Brazil, the Philippines, Nigeria, and many others have witnessed an increased rate of kidnapping cases and natural disasters. Nigeria, in particular, has recorded over two million kidnapping cases since 2023, with 1K deaths from kidnapping and natural disasters. Amid these events, the average Nigerian is left with their devices as their voice to reach the world.

This served as the basis for building something to combat the deaths of people for Georgia Oviesu, an 18-year-old Nigerian-German developer who performs under the stage name Gia Rei, who believes that “one death is too much” to not do anything about. “One death requires a change,” she said.

With her background in Computer Science as a Computational analyst and coder, an assignment to design an application to be submitted for grades became too good for scores and is on the verge of becoming a life-saving platform for the average Android user in Nigeria.

SafeLink, an emergency alert app that works without an internet connection, was officially launched and publicly demonstrated at a live event at Radisson Blu Anchorage, V.I., Lagos. She used the event to appeal for partners who can help take the app from a promising prototype to a tool that can protect people across the country.

She described the motivation behind it as moral rather than commercial. The app is aimed at what Oviesu called the average person. Someone whose phone is their only means of reaching help when something goes wrong. In an emergency, a user can send an SOS to rescuers within their immediate vicinity, and the app identifies their exact location.

The key to the design is that it does not depend on the internet. SafeLink uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a low-power wireless technology that lets phones send messages to other devices nearby.

Georgia said this matters in Nigeria, where internet connectivity is prone to intermittent loss.
She stressed that the app is not limited to crime or road accidents. Damage to roads is one danger, she said, but personal health emergencies such as seizures and asthma attacks are equally in scope. In those cases, SafeLink does more than call for rescuers. It also sends the person in distress a calming message with breathing guidance. Rescuers who receive the alert can see the survivor’s information, so they know who they are going to help.

SafeLink is available only on Android, and Oviesu said this is a deliberate humanitarian choice rather than a technical limitation. iPhones, she said, are expensive, and owning one generally requires wealth. The app is meant for the less privileged, and she pointed out that about 70 percent of people in the world use Android devices.
For now, the app has to be installed on a phone before an emergency for it to work. Her long-term ambition is to turn it into a built-in feature of the phone itself, so that protection does not depend on a user having downloaded anything in advance.
That limitation leads to what she described as a central challenge of the project. The goal is for those people to install it and use it to help people who have less.

Gia Rei said the hardest part of building SafeLink was getting Bluetooth to behave the way an emergency requires. Ordinary Bluetooth connections need devices to be paired manually, which is impractical when someone is in danger. SafeLink was built to connect automatically, without displaying the list of devices it is searching for.
She said her ability to build the offline capability was helped by a diploma in computing.

On data protection, she said user information is well safeguarded because she is the sole writer of the app’s code.

Georgia did not present SafeLink as a finished solution. The audience named some of what could pose as a challenge to the app’s result. “Development without criticism not development,” she said, in describing the spirit in which she wants those partnerships to operate.

The first concerns who answers the call. If the responding body is a police station, she said, officers will most likely find it difficult to mobilise a response without orders from higher authorities. A fast alert is of little use if the response cannot move as quickly.

The second is domineering from partners. Though, she is willing to collaborate with people who are willing to partner, Georgia is aware and is not willing to sell or allow complete dominance of SafeLink.

The event doubled as a call for partnership. Speaking to the audience, Georgia was asked what kind of partnership would make SafeLink work at scale, and she answered by naming three groups: non-governmental organisations, government agencies, and telecom operators such as MTN and Airtel.
She said she needs partners who genuinely want to help.

Georgia’s work is not confined to software. She is also Vice Principal of Bennie Griffins Academy in Adiyan, Ogun State. A school that is entirely free and serves children from low-income families.
The academy’s stated aim is to raise global leaders at no cost to their families. Its curriculum includes computer science and robotics alongside the arts, so pupils are creative and free as well as technically skilled.
It also gives children a platform to say what they think is wrong in society, which she described as a first step toward changing it. Lessons touch on the advantages that wealthier Nigerian children have access to, sometimes at the expense of the poor.
The school is linked in spirit to the app. Both come from the same belief that privilege carries a responsibility to those who lack it.

Stakeholders and guests named at the event included her parents; George Uwaifo – IT CTO at Giteksol Solutions Limited; Mrs. Sumbo Ojukotola, Deputy Director – Special Correctional Centre for girls; Hon. Pole Alex G., Ojodu LCDA stakeholder; Onyeugbo Fanny, Bennie Media; Ignite Films and journalists who watched the first live demo.

SafeLink is still at an early stage and a one of its kind app where it’s first in existence can be found in China.