Rural Women to Report Human Rights Violations Against Them Using Mobile Phones
The UmNyango Project will use SMS technology for rural women and men to access information to and report incidences of violence against women and children, as well as violations of women¹s right to land. This initiative will be tested out in Dondotha, KwaDlangezwa, KwaGcwensa, Limehill and Muden, and if successful, will be rolled out on a wider scale. As well as using text messaging, the project will be enable women in these areas to produce their own radio programmes which will be made available to local radio stations, as well as being distributed over the internet as 'podcasts'.
The UmNyango Project was established by Fahamu, a pan African organisation based in Cape Town, Nairobi, Dakar and Oxford.
I am very curious to see what the outcome of this project will be and whether they will be successful in getting people to report HR violations using SMS. I remember having a call with Firoze Manji back when we were still thinking about the functionality of the Hub. Fahamu has definitely done alot of phone based advocacy and research work and had lots of very insightful feedback. I believe they are on our list of potential allies for the Hub.