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.
While gaining interest among international women's rights activists, some caution that chatbots should not replace human support, emphasizing that survivors need empathy, understanding, and emotional connection 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 how 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 face defamation lawsuits. She felt that existing systems were failing victims twice: once by failing to prevent violence and again when trying to speak up.
With support from Mozilla, the Gates Foundation, and the Patrick McGovern Foundation, her team began developing Grit, a mobile app that helps people record, report, and receive a response to abuse. Free to use, Grit has 13,000 users and received about 10,000 requests for help last September.
Grit includes a help feature that automatically starts recording audio and sends an alert to a private rapid-response call center. The app was developed with the needs of abuse survivors at its core, with Leonora stating, We need to earn people's trust. These are communities often ignored. We are asking a lot from people when it comes to sharing data.
The second element of Grit is the vault, a secure space to store evidence of abuse. This allows users to keep photos, screenshots, and voice recordings private, protecting crucial evidence from loss or tampering. Finally, their upcoming feature, Zuzi, the AI chatbot, was shaped by user feedback, aiming to be a warm, trustworthy figure to confide in.
Although originally designed for women, Zuzi has also served men seeking help, revealing that the technology can facilitate conversation without judgment. However, experts caution about the limitations of AI in dealing with complex trauma, stressing that it cannot replace human interaction.
Grit's approach has gained international attention, with presentations at high-profile conferences illustrating the need for high-tech solutions in combating gender-based violence. Leonora emphasizes the necessity for diverse voices in the tech development space, advocating that more inclusion can lead to technology that genuinely represents the experiences of those it serves.
