What is Gender Based Violence (GBV)?
Gender Based Violence is any act of violence committed against a person due to the person’s gender and results in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm. Victims of Gender Based Violence suffer health consequences like forced and unwanted pregnancies, STDs, trauma and stigmatization.
In different regions in Cameroon, there are several conflicts. In the Northern regions Boko Haram constantly attacks civilians and children and kids are generally the target. Some girls are being kidnapped and forced into marriage by these terrorists and these kinds of acts are catalyzed by the fact that the girl child is considered to be less of a human as compared to the boy child. Apart from these Boko Haram attacks; certain cultural and religious beliefs have permitted gender-based violence for a long time.
In the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, there is a war between separatist fighters and the Cameroon army; which lives again women and children very vulnerable as they are usually the targets. Young girls are targeted by some irresponsible armed forces and forced to have sex. They are many times forced into relationships and in general are at high risk to falling in the hands of sex predators.
In the Eastern region, many young girls have been obliged to get into the sex trade in order to make a living, hence leaving them very exposed to gender based violence, in addition to refugees from the Central African Republic, have contributed in making this region very unsafe to live in; especially as the refugee camps are poorly funded. This leads to girls been targets of sexual gender-based violence by locals and even the male refugees.
Although we have cited some regions, in the other regions, we still witness gender-based violence; especially in the form of intimate partner violence, rape, sexually transmitted marks issued to female students, just to name a few.
Those whose rights are violated are also faced with weak health systems (mental, clinical, psycho social) are weak in capacity and resources, coupled with weak legal systems; materialized as unenforced laws and ignorance.
Using Technology to help reduce Gender Based Violence.
In the context of general insecurity (In the North West and South West Regions, East Region, North Region), misinformation, stigmatization and weak legal systems, it becomes very common to get cases of young girls and women who have been abused and left helpless without any proper care. Nonetheless, with the increasingly high adoption of mobile phones especially with GPS capability and increasing internet access, these young girls now have an opportunity to be heard by people who truly care about them and who can help them at least receive the care they need. Availability of ‘Okadas’ i.e., bike riders make it easy for anyone to get first aid care even in the most interior zones. National policies providing social care and social system structures have been developed over the years hence making it easier for Gender Based Violence victims to receive care.
Thanks to advancements in technology, and availability of local app development firms and institutes like eBASE (Effective Basic Services) Africa in collaboration with Vinsight technologies, Geovation Collaborations, and Silicon Mountain and with funding from the French embassy Cameroon under the PISCCA program, we have the capacity of building technological solutions which can provide a way for Victims to report anonymously, get help and get free educational content. Stakeholders too can now in real time gain access to real time information on Gender Based Violence cases and based on this information take necessary measures to solve this wicked problem.
How does the Kwikklik App help reduce and prevent Gender Based Violence (GBV)?
It is made of a reporting unit platform which uses an innovative approach in which mobile phones can be used to report 3D (GPS, Image, Voice, Time) data of GBV cases. A mapping unit wherein stakeholders can view data of anonymized GBV victims. A preventive unit where crowd sourced data and artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to help notify people in a certain area about the risks of GBV.
In cases where the harm has already been done, the consultancy unit permits victims get in contact easily with experts (medical, psychology and legal) and emergency units (‘Okadas’), so that they can be taken immediate care of.
In order to create awareness and prevent future cases of GBV, the education unit will help sensitize users about measures of prevention of GBV and also emergency steps to be taken when such crimes are committed.
How does the Kwikklik App work?
This App is multi-platform an can be accessed on most devices.
You can access the app by clicking on Get App on the landing page: https://www.endsgbv.org. Once you gain access to the app, you can then:
Sign Up:
In case you have yet created an account, once You get to fill in all necessary information to get registered as a user.
Note:
- Make sure to put in a valid email address
- Email addresses are unique
- Usernames are unique
- The password in the verification box must match the original password
- You must accept the terms and agreements.
Sign In:
In case you already have an account, you just put in your credentials and gain access to the platform.
Homepage
Now logged in, the first page you see is the home page which contains different user’s reports and you can choose to comment or view any of these reports by simply clicking on them.
Reporting
Once you click on the reporting icon, you have this report abuse page which comes up. You can insert textual details about your case, do an optional voice recording, upload an optional image, select the case type or input a custom case type, choose the date of abuse and then choose whether to get preventive palliatives, get in contact with a medical doctor, legal consultant or psychologist
Education Content Page
Any user can gain access to free educational content by clicking on the education icon, and then choosing to view either videos or articles. The videos can be viewed on this platform or on the platform on which they are hosted.
Getting Help (Medical, Psychological, Legal)
All users can get access to Preventive Palliatives, Medical practitioners, legal consultants and psychologists, in just one click. You can also view your requests and know their state (whether accepted, declined or pending)
Map view
Reports apart from being just viewed as plain text and multimedia files, can be viewed on a map, with different colors representing different case types
User Profile
You can view and update profile information, by selecting My account, when you click on the top left icon. Then if you want to update, just click on edit profile, and once the update is done, click on update.
App review
Conclusion
In this blogpost, we have discussed how a technological solution like the Kwikklik App can help in the prevention of GBV and taking care of GBV victims. We have also seen how to use this App effectively.
Let’s all take care :)
