Limerick Schoolgirl Flourish Olushola App to Combat Gender Based Violence

Inspired to prevent gender based violence

Flourish Olushola, a student at Colaiste Nano Nagle, intended to enter Technovation, a competition where girls compete to create an app with a social enterprise, with an app designed to fight climate change but one of Ireland’s most tragic murders changed that.

Limerick Schoolgirl Flourish Olushola App to Combat Gender Based Violence

Flourish changed tack when she heard about the murder of 23 year-old primary teacher Ashling Murphy, deciding that she was going to be part of the change required to combat gender based violence. Ashling’s murder shocked the nation, with thousands attending vigils and outrage brewing against the “epidemic” of violence against women.

Taoiseach Michael Martin said of her murder: “There has to be a broad societal approach and realisation that there has to be a zero-tolerance for gender-based violence, there is a national strategy but it will take a deep routed change in attitude and culture to really prevent attacks of this kind and other attacks on women to make sure they are safe going about their daily activities of life”.

Flourish was also affected by this. Her project for Technovation would help to prevent gender based violence through education. Flourish’s app, Whistleblower, educates users on the meaning of gender-based violence, how to combat it and where to go if you need help.

Flourish was supported by TeenTurn, who provide teenage girls the opportunity to gain hands-on STEM experience and the support to acquire qualifications and jobs, and her hard work paid off as Flourish walked away with first prize in the Junior Division.

Turning it around

TeenTurn is a start-up designed to help teenage girls, especially ones from underserved areas and backgrounds, to gain hands-on experience in STEM, where girls are still underrepresented compared to boys.

Their mission involves educating girls to see what life could be like with a career in STEM, and to contribute to equity in the workplace – such as in workplace diversity and corporate-social responsibility.

Flourishing through Apps

“I did not expect to win anything as it was my first time doing any sort of coding but I somehow managed to win first place in the junior division and I won a brand-new HP chromebook. I was over the moon”, said Flourish.

“TeenTurn helped me so much through my Technovation journey from all their resources to connecting us to professional app developers”, she continued.

There is no time to stand still as Flourish awaits the results from the Global Technovation competition and already has plans to make her app more secure by adding disguise features in order to protect users from stalking and harassment.