Ilford schoolgirl creating iPhone app to beat the bullies

A young girl who was once at the hands of heartless school bullies is designing an iPhone app to raise awareness and do her bit to help eradicate the problem.

Lashai Ben-Salmi, of Eton Road, Ilford, has applied for �5,000 of funding with hopes of making her anti-bullying app a reality.

The youngster is being nominated for the Recorder/Rotary Young Citizen Award for the effort she is putting in to stamp out bullying in schools.

The 11-year-old’s mother Sabrina Ben-Salmi said: “The bullying started at school. Lashai has never been a street-wise child and some of the things she told me were horrible. She had her hair pulled and a lot of it was violent.

“I pulled her out and we home-schooled her for a year. It was the only option available. Naturally she lost a lot of confidence from this, as most children of eight or nine would.”

Lashai is the eldest of four siblings.

She and her younger brother have been invited to pitch the app to a board of entrepreneurs in October, in hope of gaining some of the funding to get it off the ground.

The app will provide access to a mentoring programme which will enable younger people experiencing bullying to get advice from professionals.

“She is interested in science, art and journalism,” added Mrs Ben-Salmi.

“She has done so well to re-integrate back in school after being taken out during the bullying, and she takes her studies very seriously.”