New Namola app helps protect women under siege by criminals
• South Africans find solutions in ride-hailing technology that brings help at press of a button
On August 1, thousands of women and gender nonconforming people took to the streets for #TheTotalShutdown protest against SA’s horrific culture of gender-based violence and femicide.
Marches took place in 19 SA cities as well as in Lesotho and Namibia and the marchers presented a memorandum of 24 demands — one for each year since our young democracy was founded in 1994.
“Our aim is to demand that the state must do everything within its powers to enable us to realise our right to be free from violence, whether it emanates from public or private sources,” the memorandum reads. According to Stats SA’s
released in May, about 38 out of every 100,000 women were raped during 2016-17. About 80% of the sexual assaults reported in the 2016-17 crime statistics were rapes, of which 68.5% of the victims were female.
FACEBOOK GROUP
SA also excels at murder. According to the World Health Organisation the SA femicide rate in 2016 was 12.1 per 100,000, five times higher than the global average of 2.6. It was the first time in 15 years that the rate has risen, having previously fallen steadily from 21.4 in 2000 to 9.6 in 2015.
It is numbers like these and the fact that 7.7% of SA’s men think it’s okay to hit their wives if they argue with them that led to the need to create #TheTotalShutdown Facebook group in the first place.
More than just a march, the group acts as a private safe haven for more than 100,000 women, where they can seek help and talk about their struggles in a controlled environment. It is here where stories of the Namola app were shared as a safe way to request help when you find yourself in danger.
The week following the march 65.5% of users who signed up for the app were women. I signed up myself after finding a story on my timeline just last week, where a friend of a friend had used the app and got herself to safety.
Namola is a free mobile safety app. At the click of a button a responder will call you back and help facilitate the safety response you need based on your situation. It’s basically a “please call me” to a 911-type emergency response team.
But what sets Namola apart is the fact that it makes use of the same technology found in e-hailing apps such as Uber, so from the beginning of the call the operator knows who you are and where you are.
For those worried about social media’s track record with privacy, the operators only know your information during that call time.
This immediate access to information not only significantly cuts down the time it takes to explain your situation but it also allows the operator to contact the right people for you in your immediate area. It essentially gets you help faster.
“I have yet to meet a South African who is not on some level consumed by fear of crime and violence,” says Peter Matthaei, Namola’s CEO and one of its creators. “When we started to consider the scale of the problem we realised that this is something we could possibly make quite a dent into if we make it easier for people to request emergency assistance ... but then also over time how do we proactively make SA safer.”
Namola means “rescue” in Sotho and Tswana and has done just that in more than 10,000 incidents. It is through having official partnerships with various government agencies such as the Tshwane and Gauteng police forces, as well as more than 300 verified and screened volunteer organisations, that helps get its estimated 200,000 users the best help possible.
It initially focused on four categories: crime and law enforcement; accidents; medical emergencies; and fire emergencies. But as the app and the number of reported incidents grew, so too has the database of partners. After logging 255 requests for assistance for domestic violence and 38 cases of rape, the app has now started doing more.
“We feel that if a traumatic event happens, it throws a long shadow in your life and in many cases we do need trauma counselling services,” explains Matthaei. “If a woman for instance uses Namola to get out of an abusive relationship, where is the safety net for her journey, to empower her out of the bad situation? That is why we’re providing [in] instances of abusive relationships access to trauma counselling and information on shelters.”
PARTNERSHIP
You can find the help you need by downloading Namola on both the App Store and Play Store. It’s free, thanks to the partnership with Dialdirect — and no, you don’t need to sell your life or info to the insurers in exchange. Sometimes people just do things for the right reasons so as to make the world a better place.
IF TRAUMATIC EVENT HAPPENS IT THROWS A LONG SHADOW IN YOUR LIFE... WE DO NEED TRAUMA COUNSELLING