Guanajuato, Gto., May 30, 2018.- With the purpose to contribute in creating spaces where women feel safe, students created the project "Purple Trip", the first certifying brand in Mexico focused in recognizing and promoting establishments that have safety protocols.

The project was created by three students of the University of Guanajuato and a student from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, and obtained the first place in GuanaHacks, the first national hackathon held in UG that had safety as its primary topic.

"Purple trip" works in two ways: on one hand it will train the personnel that works in touristic places such as bars, restaurants, hotels and hostels, so they know what to do if there are cases of sexual harassment in their establishments, explained Luisa Alfaro, a student of Political Science at UG.

Plus, based on indicators, "Purple Trip" will promote them as safe spaces for women, she mentioned.

That list of safe places will be in a database, available in a website, where women would consult the information. So, basically it is an easy access indicator where women could know the places certified by the "Purple Trip" brand.

The project "is viable, but also, in Mexico, there isn't a brand that certifies this. So, we would be innovating in the space. This is very important because there many touristic cities in Mexico, but for Guanajuato to become safer for women is important", added Luisa Alfaro.

The protocols are not that complex, it is about women having access to safe taxis, or the personnel knows that they must stop selling alcohol to women when they are drunk since it may compromise their safety, mentioned as an example.

Obtaining the first place in GuanaHacks, "Purple Trip" will go through a process of incubation, and the team who developed this proposal will be able to attend the hackathon in Guadalajara and will last a week.

Another participant, Cinthya Elizabeth Ramírez Corona, a Chemical Engineering student, told that after being mugged she thought on doing something that contributed in safety for women, so she took the opportunity to participate in the GuanaHacks.

About her experience in this hackathon, she said that it helped her realize that when you want to contribute in finding solutions to a problem, "any knowledge we have can be useful, and if we don't have it, you can learn it there", so she recognized the special work of the mentors that support them for the 55 hours that lasted the event.

In the same sense, Luisa Alfaro made an invitation to students of social sciences to participate in events like GuanaHacks, "I think that our profiles are very necessary in these spaces because if they teach us something in the degrees is to problematize, and I think that to find a solution through technology, the first thing we need to know is to find the problem."

She added that the technology offers many tools to solve complications, we're innovating plenty and there are people doing interesting things, "and our way to see society, of studying it and trying to understand it, gives you many tools that can help solve lots of problems."