Nigerian advocate who launched mobile app to tackle GBV

With the rising cases of sexual assault, one Nigerian woman lawyer decided to come up with a mobile app to put this to a stop.

Moved by her personal experience as well as that of her childhood best friend who was raped and compelled not to speak up for fear of stigmatization, Omowumi Ogunrotimi,  a gender justice advocate through her female-led Gender Mobile Initiative created a mobile application used to report cases of sexual assault and gender-based violence.

Over the years, issues of sexual assault and gender-based violence have continued to rise in every society globally. Although this menace affects both men and women, the female gender proves to be at greater risk of experiencing either the online or physical form of sexual assault at some point in their lifetime.

According to a report by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one in four girls and one in 10 boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. In addition, six out of 10 children in Nigeria experience emotional, physical, or sexual abuse before the age of 18, with many experiencing physical violence.

Despite several laws and policies as well as government efforts aimed at combating the menace, total eradication still eludes Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large.

Among the contributing factors to the continuous spread of this silent pandemic is the fact that most victims find it hard to report cases due to the perceived stigmatization it comes with. Also, survivors of sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence face difficulty in the quest to get justice.

“The fear of not being believed, or even being blamed for being raped, is creating a dangerous culture of silence that prevents survivors from seeking justice. It is unacceptable that survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence face such a torturous ordeal to get justice, which only adds to their pain,” says Osai Ojigho, the Nigeria Director of Amnesty International, a global human rights advocacy group.

In recent times, tertiary Institutions in Nigeria have reportedly been in the spotlight with increasing allegations of sexual harassment and abuse on campuses.

This is partly because school authorities show a nonchalant attitude towards handling cases of sexual assault and in some cases tend to cover it up in a bid to protect the public image of the institutions.

Omowumi who is also a legal practitioner, through her female-led Gender Mobile Initiative created a mobile application used to report cases of sexual assault and gender-based violence.

“I experienced a bout of sexual abuse at the age of 14 by a trusted neighbour. I sought and accessed professional help which sped up my recovery as a little girl. Despite my parent’s support, I wasn’t shielded from the repressive culture of self-silencing and associated stigma.”

“In the succeeding year, my childhood best friend was raped by a trusted family friend who lured her into his apartment at about 9 pm. After she reported to her family, her mother gave her compelling reasons not to report, to avoid being blamed and shamed. She got pregnant from the rape and lost her life while procuring an unsafe abortion because she couldn’t access integrated services

“The rape, the shaming she endured, and her eventual death defined my career path and inspired the work we do at Gender Mobile Initiative,” Omowumi told AWiM news.

Launch of CampusPal App

As part of the Gender Mobile Initiative’s mandate to bridge gaps in terms of reportage and access to hands-on services through technology adoption, CampusPal was launched beginning with a nationally spread call centre infrastructure used for data collection.

According to Omowumi who is also the lead director of Gender Mobile Initiative, data collected from the call centre infrastructure portrayed higher education institutions as the centre ports for sexual assault with over 80 per cent of 237 cases emanating from different campus communities.

“The trends drawn from the data launched our work within the higher education system in 4 pilot institutions. With this data, we moved into campus communities and realised that policies and reporting channels were largely non-existent. This gap inspired the Campus Safety Initiative model anchored on a tripartite approach of policy innovation, bystander intervention, and creative integration of technology,” she said.

Although Gender Mobile Initiative was established in 2017, the CampusPal mobile application was launched in 2021 emerging from a series of consultations and meetings across campus communities and with the support of the Ford Foundation.

How CampusPal works to ensure the  anonymity of victims

The CampusPal app is a feature-rich mobile platform specific to campus communities that promote confidentiality-driven reporting, reported case tracking, support community/safe space that catalyzes the power of solidarity, information escrow/perpetrator matching, and learning centre to democratize access to policies, case appeal and climate survey for periodic assessment.

The user-friendly app requires first-time users to sign up with a name, email address, phone number, password, and also institution of study from a drop-down list of tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Brenda* (not real name), who was a university student as at last year when she used the app told AWiM News it is a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate mobile application.

Brenda first heard of CampusPal from its campus ambassador who promoted it in her school at that time.

When her friend started having issues with a male lecturer in the department, she downloaded the app and quickly reported the issue.

“I used the app a couple of times last year to report a case of ‘power dynamic’ which was gradually leading to sexual assault between my friend and a male lecturer in our department.

“After submitting the report, I got an in-app notification saying my complaint has been received and that I will be contacted soon.

“Someone later reached out and kept in touch with me via phone call until the case was resolved by the school authority and no one in the department knew I reported the case except my friend. That was when I knew that Gender Mobile worked in hand with the school authority,” Brenda added.

After then, Brenda also recommended the app to her friends who used it for free counselling amongst other features offered by the app while staying anonymous.

Shortfalls of the CampusPal mobile app

Although the mobile app has recorded over 1800 downloads since its launch with over 8 cases reported, an investigation into its reach and coverage indicates that it is not yet available in some tertiary institutions in the country.

Omowumi, while speaking on other challenges said that the constant change in the leadership and administration in tertiary institutions has impacted the pace and sustainability of the app and this reverses the progress made in some cases.

“A major challenge is the inability of institutions to prioritize these issues enough to allocate resources for the requisite infrastructure. But we have our sleeves rolled for the work ahead as we continue to consolidate on the gains made and forge strategic partnerships,” she added.