An open child-safety project from Bangladesh
প্রতিটি শিশুর অধিকার নির্ভয়ে বেড়ে ওঠা।
We are building Nirbhoy — an open, low-cost, dignified safety system for children. A small covert wearable, a parent app, and a community of verified responders who can help when something goes wrong.
Mission
In Bangladesh and across the world, children are being harmed — at home, in school, on the way to school. The systems meant to protect them too often fail. Existing tracking devices ask the wrong question; most harm comes from people the child knows, not strangers in the street.
Nirbhoy is built around a different question: how do we give a child a way to call for help when they cannot speak, in a form an attacker cannot easily find or remove, and connect that call to people who can actually act within minutes?
Our promise is open-source code, end-to-end encrypted data the family controls, honest acknowledgement of what the device cannot do, and a long-term commitment to the children and families who use it.
বাংলাদেশসহ পৃথিবীর নানা প্রান্তে শিশুরা প্রতিনিয়ত নিপীড়িত হচ্ছে — ঘরে, স্কুলে, রাস্তায়। যেসব ব্যবস্থা তাদের রক্ষা করার কথা, সেগুলো অনেক ক্ষেত্রেই কাজ করছে না। বেশিরভাগ ক্ষতি অপরিচিত কারো হাতে নয়, পরিচিত মানুষের হাতেই ঘটে।
নির্ভয় ভিন্নভাবে প্রশ্ন করে: যখন একটি শিশু কথা বলতে পারে না, তখন তাকে কীভাবে সাহায্যের ডাক দেওয়ার সুযোগ দেওয়া যায় — এমন একটি রূপে, যা আক্রমণকারী সহজে খুঁজে বের করতে পারবে না — এবং সেই ডাক কীভাবে কয়েক মিনিটের মধ্যে প্রকৃত সাহায্যকারীর কাছে পৌঁছাবে?
আমাদের অঙ্গীকার: ওপেন-সোর্স কোড, পরিবারের নিয়ন্ত্রণে এনক্রিপ্টেড ডেটা, ডিভাইসের সীমাবদ্ধতা সম্পর্কে সৎ থাকা, এবং দীর্ঘমেয়াদে শিশু ও পরিবারের পাশে থাকা।
Nirbhoy is the feeling we want every child to grow up with.
নির্ভয় — সেই অনুভূতি যা নিয়ে প্রতিটি শিশু বেড়ে উঠুক।
How it works
When a child needs help, the alert moves outward through circles of trust. The family always comes first. Public broadcast is never used — that path leads to mob justice. Instead, verified responders in a child's community are notified with the minimum information needed to help.
A small covert device — wristband, school-ID badge, sewn-in patch, pendant, or hair clip. Designed so an attacker cannot quickly find or remove it. The child knows it is there; an attacker doesn't.
Parents and up to five trusted family members get the alert instantly: a push notification, an SMS if there is no internet, an automated call if there is no acknowledgement. Full information. End-to-end encrypted.
If the family doesn't respond in sixty seconds, a small network of verified community members — pre-registered neighbours, NGO workers, trained volunteers — is alerted. They see that someone in the area needs help, but never the child's identity or exact location.
An NGO-staffed crisis desk receives Tier 3 escalations. They coordinate with the family, dispatch responders, and ensure follow-up happens — because an alert without a response is just a notification.
What we are building
One small core electronics module, multiple disguises — wristband, school badge, sewn-in patch, pendant, hair clip. The same firmware runs on every form. An attacker cannot search a child for every possible disguise.
The device recognises a child's spoken safe-word in Bangla, detects falls and unusual motion, learns the child's normal patterns of heart-rate and routine, and triggers an alert when something looks wrong. All of this happens on the device — no audio streamed, nothing in the cloud.
A simple, Bangla-first application that works on a low-end phone. Alerts arrive by push notification, SMS, or automated call. Location and audio are end-to-end encrypted to the parent — even we cannot read it.
Verified community responders — never anonymous strangers — receive alerts when the family is unreachable. We partner with NGOs whose staff are trained to coordinate the response. A device that fires into a void is not a device worth wearing.
Status
We are not writing firmware yet. We are doing the work that decides whether the firmware will be the right thing to write — parent interviews, NGO conversations, advisory board, ethics charter. Hardware comes after we know what families actually need.
Get involved
If any of these describes you, we would like to hear from you. Some roles require verification before deeper access — see our trust model in contact.
Parents & caregivers
We are conducting 30-minute interviews with parents in Bangladesh. Your perspective shapes what we build.
→ Write to hello@nirbhoy.org
Child protection workers
We need to design around the actual threat model — the cases you see, not the cinematic ones.
→ Write to hello@nirbhoy.org
NGOs & humanitarian orgs
The device is incomplete without a crisis desk. We are looking for NGO partners in Bangladesh.
→ Write to partners@nirbhoy.org
Developers & engineers
Zephyr / nRF Connect SDK, Flutter, FastAPI, TFLite Micro. Read the docs, open a discussion.
→ GitHub: nirbhoy-project
Product & industrial designers
Multiple form factors, culturally sensitive to Bangladesh. Children's product design experience welcomed.
→ Write to hello@nirbhoy.org
Lawyers, ethicists, researchers
Data protection law, IRB-grade ethics review, threat modelling for the responder network.
→ Write to ethics@nirbhoy.org
Funders & foundations
Phases 0–2 cost under $10K combined. Phase 3 with 500 units costs ~$100K. Every dollar funds an open public good.
→ Write to funding@nirbhoy.org
Journalists & community organisers
And keep us accountable. Call out the failure modes you see.
→ Write to press@nirbhoy.org
Everyone else
The single most useful thing right now is reaching the people we should be talking to. Forward the link.
→ nirbhoy.org
Contact
Pick the address that fits what you want to share. A real person replies — usually within a few days. If nothing fits, hello@nirbhoy.org is always right.
General · Parents · Caregivers
Say hello, or take the parent interview
NGO & humanitarian partners
Partner with us on the response network
Funders & foundations
Cross us from research to deployment
Lawyers · Ethicists · Researchers
Consent, safety, accountability
Security disclosure
Found something? Tell us before you tell anyone else
Journalists & community organisers
Help us reach the right families — and keep us honest
Code, docs and roadmap on github.com/raihan-js/nirbhoy. We'll move to the nirbhoy-project org once we incorporate. For developer contributions, open an issue or discussion on the repo.