By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Nigeria debuts it’s first online platform to report gender based violence as Creative Connecting Technologies Limited, CCTech, on Tuesday in Abuja launched ReportNow, a free web reporting portal to help people experiencing gender based violence get succour on real time.
CCTech software Engineer and Director Strategy, R&D, Tammy Joshua of CCTech, said that the modalities of the platform would help in addressing the culture of survivor-silence fuelled by self guilt, shame, humiliation embarrassment, survival especially for Internally Displaced Persons, lack of trust in the criminal justice system and the police.
Joshua explained that ReportNow platform was a community support project that would protect both the survivors and the information they provide while it empowers civil societies, government agencies and other interventionist organisations with access to critical information necessary for decision making.
ReportNow also enables eye witnesses report cases of abuse or suspected abuse to prevent actual occurrence, he stressed.
He further said:”It is a web portal built to aid, facilitate, empower and support organisations as well as provide data that would help evidence based decision making.
“ReportNow will enable CSOs & NGOs to deploy location centered intervention that will allow focus and efficient management of resources by eliminating multiplicity of efforts.”
He maintained that CCTECH was disturbed over the rising cases of child molestation, sexual and domestic violence as well as other forms of abuse thus it created the free website to help survivors and observers get succour by sending discreet and confidential reports of abuse or any suspected anomaly to the web portal, which would in turn be channeled to relevant authorities and Civil Society Organisations to enhance treatment, counselling, access to justice and enable support for survivors as well as aid further investigations in cases of suspicion.
Furthermore, Managing Director, CCTech, Mr. Clifford Ogbuagu noted that ReportNow would serve as a “coordinating m alone lechanism where organisations can take ownership” to achieve their goal of ending all forms of abuse and violence, said the platform was developed to ride over all the reasons attributed to poor reporting of gender based violence.
He further said “It is Important to work together to achieve our goals. We all have one objective, which is ending sexual, domestic and intimate partner violence.
Ogbuagu further disclosed that CCTech was already working towards upgrading ReportNow to ensure an offline mode where reports or information can be entered into the portal using an Internet enabled mobile device and automatically upload once access to the Internet is established.
ReportNow, according to the technology company, would and ensure data driven intervention in curtailing the scourge of rape and gender based violence.
