This Refugee Founder’s App Delivers Real-Time Crisis Information In Afghanistan

Sara Wahedi is the founder and CEO of Ehtesab, Afghanistan’s first civic-technology startup.

Ehtesab’s mobile app is designed to crowdsource and verify emergency event information, sending real-time alerts to users across Afghanistan.

Refugee turned tech pioneer

After fleeing Afghanistan as a child, Wahedi lived in Germany, the United States, and Canada. Her passion for her homeland drove her back to Afghanistan, where she worked a life-changing in 2018.

On May 9, 2018, three explosions rocked Sara Wahedi’s Kabul neighborhood. As residents were left in the dark without any real-time information from authorities, Wahedi, a former Afghan refugee, had an epiphany in the aftermath. 

“It was like a lightbulb moment for me – this is exactly the kind of tool that needs to exist in crisis states, in crisis regions,” she told the USA for UNCHR.

Real-Time Crisis alerts

Since its inception nearly six years ago, Ehtesab has issued over a quarter-million crowdsourced alerts, covering everything from explosions and arrests to road closures, traffic accidents, extreme weather, and earthquakes. 

The name Ehtesab, derived from Dari and Pashto words for transparency, accountability, and responsibility, underscores the app’s mission. 

“Access to information is one of those rights that many people don’t know is entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Wahedi. “There should never be a politicization of urgent information,”

Empowering Women And Refugee Youth

Today, 60% of Ehtesab’s employees are women in software engineering and data analysis positions. The organization is committed to amplifying women’s voices through technology and machine learning. 

Whedi is advancing a feature on Ehtesab that woul enable users to report instances of gender apartheid.

Additionally, Wahedi is dedicated to including Afghan refugee youth in critical decision-making processes. 

Speaking at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023, she highlighted the potential and challenges Afghan refugee youth face, describing them as “the architects of Afghanistan’s future.”

What’s next for Sara Whedi?

A recent graduate of Columbia University, Whedi pursued a major in urban studies and concentration in architecture, focusing on technology, law, and policy.

She spent her summers in Cupertino, California, interning for Apple’s AI and machine learning teams, while continuing to lead Ehtesab.

As a Clarendon Scholar, Whedi will continue her studies at Oxford University in the UK.

She also envisions expanding Ehtesab to other countries, advocating for the universal right to immediate, non-politicized information to ensure community safety and health.

Image credit: USA for UNHCR/ Nicholas Feeney