By Mpho Nakana
A non-profit organisation called Kwanele – Bringing Women Justice designed an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named Zuzi to help survivors of gender-based violence (GBV).
A recent Afrobarometer report revealed that nearly half of the people they surveyed in South Africa consider GBV a common issue in their communities.
Addressing this challenge, Kwanele is using technology to combat GBV.
Zuzi is available through the Kwanele mobile application. Users can share incidents of GBV with the chatbot and it will respond with helpful solutions or advice.
Leonora Tima, Kwanele’s founder and managing director, said Zuzi provides a non-judgemental platform for victims.
“The reason for doing a chatbot is that the stigmatisation around reporting gender-based violence is still huge. But the chatbot isn’t going to say ‘You, were you wearing a short skirt when you were raped?’,” she said.
A survivor said she had found a tool like Zuzi to be priceless. It offers a safe space to express feelings and receive comfort and advice without fear of judgement.
“It’s not easy to talk to other people about your situation because you feel like you’re allowing the situation and are judged also,” she said.
“But if there is something like that where you can just offload and say whatever you feel at that time it will be great because you’re just offloading and in return, you get comfort and advice.”
Another GBV survivor highlighted the misinformation faced when seeking help, particularly from the police.
According to Kwanele, Zuzi aims to address this by providing updated, reliable information on legal procedures and trauma support, and passing survivors of GBV on to the right experts if it isn’t qualified to deal with the issue.
“So if you said: I’m thinking about hurting myself, for example, the response would say something like: ‘I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling that way. I’m not trained to be equipped to help you navigate this,” said the survivor.
“But Zuzi would continue by supplying some organisations that can and supply some emergency numbers. You can also ask Zuzi to speak to a human and you will be transferred to a live person.”
Pictured above: Zuzi the AI chatbot.
Image source: Kwanele South Africa
