Countless children go missing every day and as a matter of fact, it’s sort of impossible to reach every family to put a face to the statistic. Still, social media has played a heroic role to help find some lost souls. Every day we see many posts on Facebook of missing children and we share it in the hope that the child will be reunited with their loving family. So, to take social media integration with the search for missing children to the next level, Shashank Singh had come up with an app called ‘Helping Faceless’ which was launched in 2013. Here’re some facts about the Helping Faceless app that really is and idea that can connect lost children with their parents:
Founder was almost lost The lucky child
It is surprising, that Shashank Singh, the founder of the app was almost shanghaied, when he was a child. It was a failed attempt by the kidnapper, and so he was saved. But sadly, every child is not so lucky, so to find those unlucky souls, Shashank created this app.
Well designed App to find missing.
Helping faceless is a well-designed app, beating all the basic barriers. The app was developed with a face recognition software, which tries to match the uploaded photo with database created in the back-end from resources like, Police, NGOs, etc.
Photo for a cause Know them?
We the responsible citizens of the country can take the few minutes it takes to click some photos of the kids sitting around on the streets, begging or working as daily wage labour. Then using this app we can upload them into the system. If there is a match then our tiny effort can connect those lost children with their families.
Login to Facebook Match found
One needs to login to their Facebook account to use the app. We can click a picture of the child we see roaming on the road alone or can match the kid’s face with existing photos in the application.
Search begins Click for a cause
If you think that it’s the same child in the photograph, then click yes to initiate the enquiry. The information will be transferred to the key source and then the search will begin.
Breaking the barriers We are on WhatsApp
“Helping faceless” has a WhatsApp group also in which one can send photos and information of missing children.
Flexible but rigid Click a picture
Till now only 5000 users have the app on their smartphones, so due to less impact and support the team members are facing difficulties to make new photographs available. They are looking forward to associate with more NGOs, so that that ‘Helping Faceless’ can become more operational.
Their dream Save me
They dream of making this app more impactful and reachable. They want to find every lost soul so that they can meet their families. Larger reach can unquestionably help in stopping or at least bringing down human trafficking, so let’s be human this time and download this app for a good cause.
Author’s Name: Pranay Gautam
