The tool is a small social network that combines a public conversation space and a private area, where women can share their testimonies and ask questions about gender violence.

Mobile phone image
Mobile phone image. 2017. Font: Pexels. License: BY-SA.

In 2017, in Brazil, social worker Lucy Mazera co-created the mobile application 'PenhaS' with the aim of connecting women to combat gender-based violence with information and mutual support. In 2022, Mazera arrived in Barcelona and sought the necessary support to replicate the project on a Catalan scale under the name 'LilaS'. Thus, 'LilaS' is a free mobile application with no payment options that wants to become a safe and judgment-free space where to fight gender-based violence and find professional support and mutual support. Financed by public and private contributions, the tool becomes a small-scale social network that combines a public conversation space, where women can share their testimonies and ask questions about gender-based violence, with private conversation spaces, where women can contact specific profiles. 'LilaS' also has a news section with data on gender-based violence.

At the same time, the small social network includes features aimed at emergency situations such as, for example, an escape plan to analyze how prepared a person is to physically escape an episode of gender-based violence by evaluating key aspects such as, for example, documentation or financial availability. 'LilaS' also allows you to establish three people as emergency contacts with whom the mobile application will communicate immediately when the user clicks the tool's help button. Finally, 'LilaS' includes a map with establishments, spaces and services that can be of help to women who have suffered gender-based violence. Currently, the tool is in an early stage of development and only has basic features. In this sense, around seventy women are testing it to see if the technological structure works and which are the most used features of the tool.