Egyptian Students Create an App to Rescue Street Animals

Four college students from the Ahram Canadian College decided to turn their final project into of a full-fledged campaign, by creating something as heartwarming as it is effective. The students, Mohamed Zakaria, Salma Ali, Nour El Din Ahmed, and Heba Bassem, created an app that helps users geo-tag stray animals and connect them to shelters or, ideally, a home.

Growing from the already popular use of social media in helping stray animals get adopted, the app called Pet Spot, aims to streamline the process and be an all-inclusive solution for stray dogs and cats, who are often victims of poisoning. Similarly to Environ Reform, the app allows users to send a picture of the stray animal and notify animal shelters and private users that an animal needs help.

“The nearest shelter workers can then come and pick the animal up,” explains co-founder Mohamed Zakaria, adding that the shelters they partnered with so far were a few of the best in the country, including ESMA - Egypt's largest animal shelter and animal rights group, who has been recently the focus of a campaign to prevent its closing. “We hope to reach out to many more groups in the future, but so far we focused on dealing with the best such as ESMA, CART (Cairo Animal Rescue Team), and Hope,” which is located in Alexandria. “We wanted to work with people who are passionate and excellent at helping animals in need, and those groups are among the best," Zakaria says.

Every day, thousands of cats and dogs are exposed to Cairo’s harsh urban environment and its abusive tendencies towards animals, and although there is a growing trend of social media campaigns to help give them a home, they often lack the means or financial support to subsist. “We wanted something worth campaigning for and we came up with this idea to help,” Zakaria concludes. The app, set to launch in June, will be available on Android and iOS.

Photos: Pet Spot Facebook and MO4 Network (Main Image)