The CANs unveils rape tracking app, announces SGBV Champions
Philip Clement, Abuja
The CANs, a social development and innovation organisation announces the first cohort of its six sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) champions for UNSUB, its sexual offences tracking mobile app, Daily Times reports.
The app, according to The CANs, is a digital platform built to connect victims and survivors of SGBV to first responders and other stakeholders working to eliminate all forms of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria.
Describing UNSUB as an innovation borne out of a passion to create a data tool to not just track SGBV incidents & cases, but also follow through on providing practical access to justice for women & girls.
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Khadija Muhammad Awwal, the Project Lead, stressed the importance of the app as a system for tracking incidents as well as a valuable resource centre.
She said: “We strongly believe the fight against SGBV requires the collaborative efforts of all concerned and technology which has for decades now been providing lasting solutions to social problems is the best way to approach this fight against SGBV. Alone,there is only so much we can do while together we can do so much more.”
It also provides an avenue of collaboration among various SGBV-oriented initiatives, projects, and programs of multiple institutions and organizations via stakeholder mapping and systemic engagement.
While also revealing its six SGBV Champions, The CANs described them as individuals leading organisations who are passionate and diligent in reporting and responding to cases of sexual violence.
“It is with great pleasure and pride that UNSUB welcomes our six champions who, over a period of four (4) weeks, will respond and document SGBV cases through the App. This duration will afford us the opportunity to derive critical insights on how to improve and deploy the App.
“It is on this note that we reiterate our call for the government to prioritise the fight against SGBV by enacting the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) and the Child Rights Acts across all the states. It is also important to implement other structural reforms that inhibit responses to, and prosecution of SGBV cases.” Joseph Badru, COO of The CANs read.
The six champions are Ayodeji Bello (Initiative for Girls’ Right and Health Development (IGRHD, Osun State), Dorothy Njemanze (Dorothy Njemanze Foundation, Abuja), Hanna Aaron (Community Information and Advocacy Initiative, Katsina), Funmilayo Oni (Irawo Foundation, Lagos – Focus on Urban Slums) Omowunmi Ogunrotimi (Gender Mobile, Ekiti), and Priscilla (Braveheart Initiative, Edo State)
The App is available for download on both the Google Play Store (for Android devices) and on the Apple App Store (for iOS and Apple devices).
