Grandiose Parlor

This is somewhat dated, but I couldn’t let it past after reading about the project on Kabissa (kabissa.org):

“Rural women in KwaZulu Natal will be using mobile phones to report on violations of their human rights. The UmNyango Project, which is implementing this initiative, was established by Fahamu, a pan African organisation based in Cape Town, Nairobi, Dakar and Oxford. The UmNyango Project will use SMS technology for rural women and men to access information to and report incidences of violence against women and children, as well as violations of women’s right to land.”

My initial reaction is: “Wow, excellent idea!” However, several issues came to mind several minutes after reading the proposal, some of which could potentially create more headaches for the organizers, and the even lead to increase in violence.

• What happens after the women/ victims report incidences of violence? Are there law enforcement agencies or advocacy groups that could come to the aid of the victims within a reasonable period?

By simply reporting instances of violence, especially cases of domestic violence (DV), without creating means of protecting or insulating the victims from the perpetrators just further endangers the victims. A DV perpetrator is a control-freak, by empowering the victims to report cases of violence without providing them some form of protection may lead to increase in DV incidence against these women. In the United States, the standard practice is to remove victims or perpetrators of DV from the scene once a a case is reported…and there is a lot of sense in doing this.

I would like to know how the test-run of this idea went in South Africa. (Photo: kabissa.org)