A trial mobile app to speed up the process of reporting child sexual and related offence cases, is one of the innovative ways the NGO collective End GBVF aims to end the violence.
The app allows social workers to be assigned to all child sexual and related cases at first reporting in the Garden Route District area.
The trial app is part of the NGO’s End GBVF (Gender-Based Violence and Femicide) 100-Day Challenges initiative.
Its representative, Sixolile Ngcobo, said: “South Africa cannot continue like this; with women and children living in fear and then not having sufficient crisis response, support and healing services should they experience sexual assault or rape.
“One of our aims for the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges this year is to increase the capacity of service providers in the referral network for crisis response and post-crisis care and healing, and to have more survivors access this support system.
“Through the 100-Day Challenges in 2023, we could see teams finding innovative ways to adopt technology and new processes to increase the speed at which survivors are assisted,” said Ngcobo.
Despite a slight decrease of reported sexual offences between January and March this year, the NGO noted that women and children remained most at risk of experiencing violence, harassment or rape.
During the trial, the Garden Route District team said the app directly addressed a number of identified system inefficiencies with tracking Form 22, which is used to report child abuse.
“It is important to acknowledge that reporting sexual abuse is a sensitive matter and therefore can be difficult. Many survivors might not be completely sure what happened or how to talk about it, therefore a social worker plays a big role in providing survivors with support and safety during the reporting process.”
Ngcobo said how crisis reporting and trauma support services reacted to sexual assault and abuse could have a profound impact on empowering survivors and encouraging other survivors to tell their story.
“Moreover, survivors need to feel confident in the criminal justice system and reducing barriers to reporting is fundamental to ending GBVF in South Africa.”
• For more information on the initiative, visit: https://gbvf.org.za/nsp-100-day-challenges/
Cape Times