The US Embassy, in partnership with Silicon Cape, recently hosted a hackathon focused on tackling gender-based violence (GBV) through the use of tech.
This was the first part of an initiative, called Hackathons for South Africa: Digital Solutions for Real World Challenges, which will see three more hackathons taking place in Cape Town and Johannesburg over a one-year period.
Sixty emerging IT professionals, civil society organisations, students and academics gathered at Ernst & Young’s premises in Cape Town to see how they could use tech to tackle gender-based violence (GBV).
Teams were given just 36 hours to come up with innovative ideas that use tech to address the country’s GBV crisis. The ideas shared ranged from apps and wearable devices to panic buttons and educational games.
Mentors were on hand to advise the developers on their projects - they included Oliver Baillie, director at JUMO.WORLD; Farhana Parker, founder and MD of The Social Makeover; Hannah Subayi Kamuanga, associate principal at South Suez Capital; and Samantha-Leigh Harper, founder of Nu Beginnings.
Team SmartWare impressed the judges the most with their app, Uphi. The team comprised Dumisani Ncubeni, Lihle Ndindwa, Abulele Mhlungulwana and Thomas Fihla.
Uphi (isiXhosa for where is he/she?) is still in development and will work as a panic button on feature and smart phones. The phone will send a broadcast SMS every minute notifying first responders of the user’s location.
Fihla said “the app is there as a preventative measure for incidents of GBV before they happen.”
When someone activates the panic button, sensors are activated that allow the app to monitor aspects like screaming or sudden impacts. This informs the first responders. Uphi works without airtime or data. For feature phones it works via USSD, while smartphones will have an app that works in offline mode.
Users can set who they would like as first responders, be it medical assistance or a family member. Fihla adds that they purposely left the national police service out of their first responders list as their research showed that their slow responses put people off. Instead, users can choose private security companies.
SmartWare walked away with R25 000 cash, with access to Amazon Web Services’ AWS Activate programme, valued at over R15 000, and R5 000 in consultation services from AWS.
Team member Lihle Ndindwa said: “We will work with anyone who is willing to work with us so we can take this forward.”
Second place and R15 000 went to the NerdBirds – an all-female group of computer scientists and engineers who conceptualised a game to help educate children aged between nine and eleven about GBV.
Organiser of the hackathons, Lianne du Toit, who is the founder of HackOn, said: “We are solving wicked problems that can’t be solved by one person or organisation alone. Hopefully, through these honest and collaborative conversations, communities and industries that might not have had the opportunity to cross paths can now catalyse shared visions for solving complex problems.”
The next hackathon will be taking place at the Rosa Parks American Library in Soweto, Johannesburg in early 2020.
For more information, go to https://www.buildcommunityhackathons.co.za.
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