Zanele Sokatsha, centre, lead research study for the GRIT job

She states she was broken by police. Now she's brainstorming an AI-integrated app with a panic button that signals private security to assist other women caught in South Africa's tragically high rates of abuse.

Peaches, as the 35-year-old sex employee asked to be determined, is among the more than a third of South African women that will experience physical or sexual abuse in their life times, according to UN figures.

Slender and outspoken, she remained in a group of around 15 women who collected late January to workshop the most recent upgrade of the app established by the nonprofit GRIT (Gender Rights In Tech).

Equipped with an emergency button that releases gatekeeper, a proof vault and a resource centre, the app will likewise consist of an AI-driven chatbot called Zuzi that will be showcased at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris this month.

The app has an emergency button that deploys security officers, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr an an AI-driven chatbot

"This app, it's going to provide me that hope ... that my human rights must be thought about," Peaches told AFP, asking not to give her real name to safeguard her security.

There were more than 53,000 sexual offences reported in South Africa in 2023-24, including more than 42,500 rapes, according to police figures.

That very same year, 5,578 females were killed, a 34 percent increase from the previous year.

In Peaches' case, she said she was required to provide two policemans "services totally free" to avert arrest for prostitution.

"To me, GRIT isn't just a project-- it's a requirement," Tima told AFP.

"I wanted to create tech-driven solutions that empower survivors, ensuring they receive the immediate aid, legal assistance and emotional support they require without barriers," Tima said.

- 'Roadblocks to help' -

Many cases of gender-based violence (GBV) go unreported since victims face stigma or are turned away by authorities, said GRIT lead scientist Zanele Sokatsha.

'There's a lot of obstructions still in getting gain access to and aid,' Sokatsha says

"There's a lot of roadblocks still in getting gain access to and aid," she said.

Thato, a lady in her 30s, said she sustained years of physical abuse by her stepfather before she discovered aid was available.

An avid football gamer, she said her coach realised that "some contusions were not really associated to football".

It was just when the coach took the group to an anti-GBV event in Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg, that she learned there were organisations that assist ladies in her circumstance.

"It was really heartwarming for me to discover such a space," she said, preferring to give only her given name.

GRIT's app aims to make it simpler for women to gain access to resources from their homes, where much of the abuse occurs.

It has a map of close-by clinics and shelters and a digital vault where they can publish evidence like pictures, higgledy-piggledy.xyz videos and cops reports that will be safeguarded on GRIT's servers.

The features are based on user feedback gathered at workshops around the country.

"It will conserve lives," said one female at the very same workshop gone to by Peaches.

The app is totally free, funded by GRIT's donors including the Gates Foundation and Expertise France. It already has 12,000 users.

Once downloaded, dokuwiki.stream it can work without information, making it available to those who can not pay for phone plans or remain in rural areas with restricted networks.

The chatbot Zuzi, to be released in the coming months, pipewiki.org will be available on the app and likewise integrated into certain social platforms, technical lead Lebogang Sindani said.

Zuzi was at first planned to supply only useful details, like how to obtain a defense order.

But its repertoire has been broadened after feedback "that individuals are more thinking about speaking to Zuzi about ... intimate things" like their health, Sindani said.

- 'All they understand' -

Even if there are more services than ever to help females who are attacked and strong public condemnation of cases that make it to the media, South Africa's abuse rates remain stubbornly high.

It is "a perfect storm" of an intricate history of colonisation and segregation, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de belief in male dominance, an absence of good good example and economic tensions, said Craig Wilkinson, founder of Father A Country.

"No kid is born an abuser," said Wilkinson, whose nonprofit concentrates on reaching men. "There's something failing in the journey from boy to man."

"All they understand is violence," said Sandile Masiza, a planner of the GBV Response Team for Johannesburg's child well-being authority.

"We require more programmes that are not just going to be exclusively focused on victim support, however wrongdoer avoidance," Masiza said.

"Society has normalised violence against females and ladies," UN Women GBV expert Jennifer Acio told AFP.

"That's why we keep sharing details and attempting to empower females ... to know what is an abuse of their rights, to understand when to report."