Vimba! Data-free app offers a

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Bhekisisa is launching a free gender-based violence helpline in Diepsloot

More than half the men — 56% — in Diepsloot in northern Johannesburg have abused a woman sexually or physically, according to the baseline results of the Sonke Change Trial, which was conducted in the township this year. Of the men who admitted to being abusive, most (60.2%) said they had been violent towards a woman more than once.

This figure — revealed in the study, which is a partnership between the activist organisation Sonke Gender Justice and the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand — is almost twice as high as that in a 2010 study published in the SA Quarterly journal, which measured violence against women elsewhere in the country.

“Yet very few women in Diepsloot know where or how to access help,” says Brown Lekekela from The Green Door, the only place in the township where women and children who have been abused can find temporary shelter.

The Green Door is based in the yard next to Lekekela’s RDP house in Extension 6. It consists of three wooden Wendy houses. One has been divided into three rooms and has a shower and toilet, along with office space. Another has a single bed and a sofa.

Lekekela counsels victims and helps them report cases of abuse to the police. “But mostly, only people in my area know about me,” he says.

Lekekela pages through the book in which he records the incidents. “There is no nearby government hospital which offers rape counselling services. Only the police do. The two local clinics don’t stock rape kits,” he explains. “But there are at least five nongovernmental organisations that can assist victims for free. We just didn’t know how to let everyone know about them so that more people use their services.”

This situation, combined with the impact of a Bhekisisa article (below), published in October last year, about Lekekela’s work with victims of child rape in Diepsloot, has seen Bhekisisa partner with Diepsloot-based organisations to create a cellphone app that will make it easier for women and children in the township to know what to do and where to go when they’ve been abused.

The Green Door, Sonke Gender Justice, Lawyers Against Abuse, Afrika Tikkun and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group have all provided input for the app. They will be using and promoting the Vimba Helpline, which is funded by Bhekisisa’s main donor, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“In Zulu, Vimba means ‘to prevent, stop or halt’,” explains Lekekela. “If someone in the street is robbed or hurt and they shout: ‘Vimba!’ people