As the situation worsens around COVID-19, risk groups are recommended to stay home in order to reduce the risk of becoming infected and, additionally, prevent the spreading of the infection at large. During these times, innovative solutions from civil society are required. By harnessing the power of civil society, Trygga Händer  – meaning “Safe hands” – offers a home delivery service for necessary goods, like groceries and pharmacy products, carried out by volunteers.

“We ourselves felt a need to help the risk groups but did not know how to reach out to them safely. There were a number of Facebook groups that used similar concepts, but without verifying the volunteers. We wanted to organize the connection between volunteers and the risk groups in a better and more secure way”, says Anna Bremberg, one of the founders of Trygga Händer and a student at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Top Priorities: Safety and Security

What distinguishes Trygga Händer from the Facebook groups is that the volunteers must provide their personal numbers when registering. This ensures that Trygga Händer can verify the volunteers' identity and maintain a safe and secure service. Upon delivery, the volunteer leaves the goods outside the door, shows the receipt and then the payment is made on the spot.

Trygga Händer encourages digital money transfers such as Swish as well as bank transfer as a safer alternative to traditional payments. However, if this is not possible, the payment can be done with cash in an envelope to mitigate the spread of infection. The most important thing is that the delivery is planned and executed in a safe way manner for the person in the risk group.

The company is currently looking for other solutions together with collaboration partners and has already received support from Voi, a company founded by alumni from the Stockholm School of Economics. All volunteers, or heroes as they are also called, now ride safe and free of charge with Voi’s electric scooters.

“Our goal with TryggaHänder is to make this difficult situation a little easier for the risk groups. Of course, we want to help as many people as possible, but the most important thing for us is that it is done safely”, says Anna Bremberg.

At present, Trygga Händer has received a very positive response and many have helped spread the word, but they admit that reaching out to the risk groups has been challenging.

“This week we will work more on this by putting up posters and handing out flyers”, says Anna Bremberg. 

As students, Anna Bremberg and Jennifer Zacke have not been affected by the current situation as much as many others; however, it is a major change having to practice social distancing.

“For us, it has been important to do whatever we can and we think that especially in times like these, it is extra important to feel that you are contributing to a greater purpose”, says Anna Bremberg.

Anna Bremberg is studying B.Sc. Retail Management at Stockholm School of Economics and Jennifer Zacke are studying M.Sc. Eng Medicine & Technology at Lund University Faculty of Engineering.

Read more about Trygga Händer on their website.