FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

When the System Can't Reach Them, the Community Can: WanderSafe and SmartAID Put Life-Saving Safety Technology in the Hands of Disaster-Struck Communities -- Free of Charge

WanderSafe and humanitarian NGO SmartAID will break down the information silos that leave aid workers and displaced families dangerously in the dark, giving both a shared, real-time safety intelligence layer to call for help, maintain order and avoid harm

MARSEILLE, France -- 6 July 2026 -- Stephenie Rodriguez, Founder of WanderSafe LLC, the women-led safety-intelligence company, and SmartAID, the global disaster-relief NGO, today announced a strategic humanitarian partnership to democratise access to critical safety information in disaster and conflict zones. The alliance was unveiled from the keynote stage of the Women in Leadership Summit in Marseille, France.

The problem: life-saving information, locked away

In a crisis, the most valuable resource is not always food or shelter -- it is information. Yet that information is routinely fragmented: held in government command centres, split across individual NGOs, and rarely reaching the people whose survival depends on it. A displaced family in a tent village typically has no way to know which road is unsafe, where clean water has arrived, or how to summon help. The aid worker beside them, entering an unmapped and volatile environment, is often just as exposed.

The consequences of this information gap are borne first by the most vulnerable -- women, children, older people and people with disabilities -- and by the volunteers who put themselves at risk to reach them. The need has rarely been more acute. On 24 June 2026, back-to-back earthquakes struck north-central Venezuela, damaging homes and infrastructure across Caracas and prompting the European Union to release €5 million in emergency funding -- the latest shock in a country where, according to the UN, more than 7.9 million people, over a quarter of the population, already require humanitarian assistance.¹

The mechanism: a shared safety intelligence layer

The partnership addresses this gap directly. WanderSafe will make its safety platform available free of charge to SmartAID's humanitarian teams, local first-responder partners, and the communities they serve -- beginning in disaster and unrest zones including Venezuela, Jamaica and the Philippines.

The platform turns once-siloed information into a shared intelligence platform that both aid workers, volunteers, media and displaced people can access and contribute to in real time.

Users of the WanderSafe application will be able to self-organise and become first responders in the absence of civil infrastructure, avoid dangerous or dangerous locations, and foster cross-community collaboration for better resource and aid deployment.

The SmartAID and WanderSafe Intelligence Integration will deliver the following:

• Rapid Response Signalling -- The in-app SOS protocol sends alerts to a pre-determined "Safety Circle" of trusted contacts in a moment of danger in seconds
• Be located accurately - When landmarks no longer exist, WanderSafe's location features allow users to be located accurately within 3 metres, anywhere in the world when activating the SOS protocol
• Map safety collectively -- SmartAID's team and those in proximity can tag locations as Safe, Unsafe or Useful, with images, visible to the wider WanderSafe users so the whole community can navigate around risk
• Locate essential services -- find clean-water tanks, hygiene and sanitation facilities, pop-up clinics, and secure spaces for children
• Avoid danger in advance -- receive alerts when approaching zones that SmartAID's drone and first-hand observations have deemed unsafe
• Maintain order and deter harm -- give communities a trusted, transparent means of self-organising where civil systems are overwhelmed, reducing crimes of opportunity and gender-based violence

By layering WanderSafe's safety intelligence on top of the WiFi, satellite connectivity, solar power and clean water that SmartAID deploys on the ground, the alliance ensures the same tools that protect residents also protect the humanitarian teams working beside them -- democratising safety for better outcomes on both sides of the crisis.

"After more than 30 years working in humanitarian crises, natural disasters, and conflict zones around the world, I have learned one lesson: when disaster strikes, the most vulnerable are almost always women, children, older people, and people with disabilities. In those critical first days and weeks, government systems and local emergency services are understandably focused on the immediate disaster, often leaving communities without the protection, information, and support they desperately need.

Our partnership with WanderSafe represents a significant step forward in changing that reality. By combining SmartAID's global humanitarian technological experience with WanderSafe's groundbreaking community-driven safety platform, we can help communities build their own trusted safety networks, share critical real-time information, strengthen local resilience, and better protect one another when traditional systems are overwhelmed or unavailable.

This partnership is not only about technology -- it is about giving people the tools to protect themselves, their families, and their neighbours. It will definitely enhance the safety of SmartAID's humanitarian teams and our local charity and first-responder partners operating in some of the world's most challenging environments.

We believe this partnership has the potential to transform how vulnerable communities and first responders prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters." -- Shachar Zahavi, Founding Director, SmartAID

"Safety should never depend on your postcode or your paycheck, and critical information should never sit locked in a silo while people are in danger. Our mission is to empower people with the tools and information to optimise their safety and, ultimately, to save lives. This partnership with SmartAID lets us deliver on that mission where it matters most -- placing the same intelligence in the hands of the aid worker and the family in the tent village, immediately and at no cost." -- Fiona O'Donnell, Co-Founder & CEO, WanderSafe LLC

How communities and supporters can help

SmartAID is deploying Starlink satellite systems to restore telecommunications where infrastructure has been destroyed -- the connectivity on which coordinated safety depends. WanderSafe is amplifying SmartAID's appeal to fund these systems. Community members in affected zones can download the WanderSafe application today and begin contributing verified Safe, Unsafe and Useful information at no charge.

About SmartAID

SmartAID is a global humanitarian NGO founded in 2016 that delivers customised technology responses to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and conflict zones worldwide. Working side by side with local doctors, social workers, educators and first responders, SmartAID deploys connectivity, solar energy, clean water, drones and other technologies to strengthen community resilience. The organisation has operated in more than 55 countries and directs over 98% of funds to hands-on programs. SmartAID is led by Founding Director Shachar Zahavi.

This announcement follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed by WanderSafe LLC and SmartAID on 2 July 2026, expressing the parties' mutual intent to advance the safety of volunteers, humanitarian staff and disaster-affected communities.

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¹ Sources: European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), "Venezuela" (EU emergency funding following the 24 June 2026 earthquakes); UN OCHA humanitarian needs figures as reported by UN News, January 2026. See https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/where/latin-america-and-caribbean/venezuela_en and https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166708