Innovation Q&A: Health-e’s Kim Harrisberg
Can a ‘mobile’ conversations give rape survivors a voice? Incorporating civic tech into a media campaign in South Africa could change the way media covers rape and influence how sexual violence health services run.
Izwi Lami is a civic tech project of health news agency Health-e. Using responsive text (SMS) to start conversations with rape survivors, Izwi Lami — which means “my voice” — is hoping to change the news narrative around reporting on sexual violence by using tech to amplify survivors’ voices. The SMSes also direct survivors to counselling services in their area and invite them to add their names to a petition campaign that calls for the provision of essential care packages at clinics and hospitals. We spoke to multimedia journalist Kim Harrisberg about the campaign, the tech tools they used and lessons they have learnt.
Q. Tell us about the roots and aims of the Izwi Lami campaign
Health-e has existed for 18 years, and has been covering sexual violence and gender-based violence for many many years. This campaign started as a means to address the sexual violence crisis in South Africa. Our staff imagined how we could address this issue through an innovation lens, one that could tackle the normalisation of rape culture, by engaging with survivors — so that they are not only being spoken “about”, but can come into the conversation. This fits into the concept of service journalism or journalism that provides tools. We also believe that it helps combat reader fatigue on the topic.
We had three specific aims for the campaign:
1. To provide a space for survivors to share their testimony. We’ve had examples like one survivor who said they were raped 30 years ago but have never had a space to talk about it before. We wanted survivors to feel less alone.
2. To direct survivors towards Thuthuzela centres and counselling services in their provinces. For this, we contacted all the Thuthuzela centres first to check capacity, and we only refer survivors to the ones that indicated ability to handle the new stream. We realised the responsibility of referring survivors to a place that is able to assist.
3. To direct survivors towards the petition that we set up with amandla.mobi that is calling for packages of care to be distributed to all 25 health facilities. The package of care cover the basics that a rape survivor should be given including the “morning-after pill”, antiretrovirals, counselling and various antibiotics.
This final aim was influenced by our own goals and purpose. Because we are a health news agency, we wanted to look at it through the health lens. We had considered other options, such as directing survivors to the sexual offences court, but we decided to focus on the basics of the health care they need after rape. A lot of this was inspired by a report from MSF looking at a clinic in Rustenburg where they found that a large portion of abortions from the clinic were terminating pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape. This showed that too many survivors were not getting the health interventions they needed. Many women didn’t even know that they were entitled to these things. So, we also designed posters for the clinics that gave details of the kinds of care survivors are entitled to receive. We have citizen journalists around the country and they have helped us distribute these to clinics and hospitals.
We have used extracts of the testimonies on social media and in news pieces (with permission from the survivors, of course). This was important for us to show other survivors that they are not alone. We also wanted to humanise the rape statistics. These aren’t just numbers, but people. We are not saying this is a perfect model, but it has prompted us to analyse our role as journalists in SA, and how we partner with other organisations and use tech to do so.
Q. Tell us about the tech that enables the campaign? Did you have to develop new tools or use existing ones?
We worked with GroundSource, which is run by an American journalist Andrew Haeg. They developed a tool for SMS engagement. It allows you to design a conversation in an SMS template. You choose your own keyword (we chose endrape) and he liaises with the service providers to get a shortcode number. This then prompts a series of automated texts that a user can respond to. This includes asking people where they are based in order to direct them to regional services.
In terms of designing the conversation we also consulted with Rape Crisis. They gave great insight into the wording of our questions — such as not using the word “victim”, but rather “survivor”, or when to ask for identifying information like what province a survivor is in. This was invaluable.
Once a testimony has come in, we then look at that through a journalistic lens to see how we can best use it on the various platforms we have available, to further tell the story of rape in South Africa.
We consulted with GroundSource along the way to assess what was and wasn’t working. It was an already existing system and quite easy to use. We cover the costs of using GroundSource and the costs of the SMSes, so those are free for the survivors, through our grant funding.
Q. How did you deal with users’ privacy for such a sensitive topic?
We don’t have an official privacy policy but anonymity is something we discussed extensively along the way. For example, GroundSource also works through Facebook Messenger as well as SMS. We knew Messenger could be a powerful tool, but we couldn’t ensure complete anonymity through it, because it is linked to a Facebook profile. Given this, we decided not to use that option.
The only people who have access to the back end are three people in the office. These users can see the cell phone numbers associated with users, but we only call people if we have explicit permission to do so. Sometimes users ask us to call them so they can elaborate on their stories, or we ask permission to call for further information. The tool allows for meaningful dialogue in that way.
In terms of the survivor stories, we only ever share what users give us explicit permission to share.
Q. How do you see tech influencing or changing journalism or your work in future?
I really like the idea of being in conversation with your readers, and tech tools like Messenger make that a real possibility. Something like an automated health bot that could answer reader questions is one way of doing that.
Q. What have you learnt along the way?
We are a small team, of 12 in total. We learnt some important lessons about the scope of rape and rape culture, and how big an issue it is to tackle.
On the other hand, I think we were overly ambitious initially about how many testimonies we would get. So we are learning just how difficult a thing it is for people to share.
This is a drop in the ocean [of the number of rapes happening in the country], but we’ve been approached by a lot of people who are interested in making this a bigger partnership, and for us that is a great thing. It makes the campaign a catalyst for what could potentially become a much bigger partnership with government in making this a long-term service available to survivors.
Q. What is the future for the campaign?
We are looking at a way of incorporating survivors’ rating of services like 24-hour health facilities and police stations. This is in the pipeline.
Then we recently met with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development who had heard about the tool. We discussed the possibility of them taking it on, with a view to making it a long term and sustainable service for rape survivors. In that iteration, we would move away from just asking for testimonies, and start asking important questions that can help us provide better services.
This would include what language survivors speak, what province they are in, and what services they are looking for eg police stations, a sexual offences court, a shelter, or a Thuthuzela centre.
