A gruesome killing in her own family inspired South African Leonora Tima to create a digital platform where people, mostly women, can talk about and track abuse. Leonora's relative was just 19 years old and nine months pregnant when she was killed, her body dumped on the side of a highway near Cape Town in 2020.
I work in the development sector, so I've seen violence, Leonora says. But what stood out for me was that my family member's violent death was seen as so normal in South African society. Her death wasn't published by any news outlet because the sheer volume of these cases in our country is such that it doesn't qualify as news.
The killer was never caught, and what Leonora saw as the silent acceptance of a woman's violent death became the catalyst for her app, Gender Rights in Tech (Grit), which features a chatbot called Zuzi. This is one of the first free AI tools made by African creators to tackle gender-based violence.
This is an African solution co-designed with African communities, says Leonora. The aim is to offer support and help gather evidence that could later be used in legal cases against abusers.
The initiative is gaining interest among international women's rights activists, although some caution that chatbots should not be used to replace human support, emphasizing that survivors need empathy, understanding, and emotional connection that only a trained professional can provide.
Leonora and her small team visited communities in the townships around her home in Cape Town, speaking to residents about their experiences of abuse and the ways technology fits into their lives. They asked more than 800 people how they used their phones and social media to talk about violence and what stopped them from seeking help.
Leonora found that people wanted to talk about their abuse, but they were wary of traditional routes like the police. Some women would post about it on Facebook and even tag their abuser, only to be served with defamation papers, she says.
With financial and technical support from Mozilla, the Gates Foundation, and the Patrick McGovern Foundation, Leonora and her team began developing Grit, a mobile app that could help people record, report, and get a response to abuse while it was happening.
The app has 13,000 users and had about 10,000 requests for help in September. At its core, Grit features key elements, including a help button that triggers audio recording and alerts a private response center.
Another feature, the vault, allows users to securely store evidence of abuse for potential legal proceedings. The newest addition is Zuzi, the AI-powered chatbot, designed to provide guidance and connect users to local support with a non-judgmental, friendly approach.
While primarily aimed at women, Zuzi has also assisted men seeking help, reflecting a broader conversation about gender relations in South Africa where men can also be victims of violence.
Despite the promise of technology, experts caution that tools like chatbots cannot replace crucial human elements of empathy and understanding vital for trauma recovery.
The app's approach has garnered international attention, presenting at conferences aimed at addressing gender-based violence through technology. Leonora emphasizes that the representation of diverse voices in tech design is essential to create effective solutions that address systemic issues of gender-based violence.