Graduate designs gender-based violence app

A 27-year-old man from Ga-Rankuwa has invented an app aimed at assisting gender-based violence victims. Lesedi Lebogo said the high rate of abuse motivated him to design the app, named Verbalize.

“It lets abuse victims a platform to communicate, share information and guidance through group chat rooms, categorised by types of abuse.”

It offers information about types of abuse, one-stop emergency contacts for different organisations as well as info about relevant institutions where victims can get assistance or counselling.

“The app also provides direct communication to organisations specialising in dealing with different types of abuse. You will be able to report the incident to the police via the app,” he said.

“The information will also come to our back-end database to lodge a ticket; so if police take their time in responding, we will be able to call the police station directly to ask them to assist with the incident.”

Lebogo is an IT graduate from the Tshwane University of Technology and said he was passionate about software development. Lebogo decided earlier this year, to design the app, which was motivated by an organisation called MLAB Southern Africa, which is based in Pretoria, Lynnwood where he did his first internship.

He said the organisation helped in developing the app and providing him with support. Born and bred in Ga-Rankuwa, Lebogo said while growing up he witnessed many couples fighting. He said the government was failing the people as nothing much had been done to reduce gender-based violence.

“Our system is very poor, hence I created the app to make the world a better place, so we can reduce such incidents in our country.”

“We still have a long way to go to combat gender-based violence. We need much support from the government,” he said.

Lebogo said the app was free and will be launched on the Google Play store next month.

Image for illustration. Photo: Supplied.