My Voice

"MY Voice" is a mobile app dedicated to the rights and prevention of violence against women in our societies and serves as a platform for awareness and reporting cases of FGM. 

 GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

 WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime and At least 200 million girls and women alive today living in 31 countries have undergone Female genital multilation. According to the 2019-20 Demographic and Health Survey, 9% of women between ages 15 to 49 in The Gambia have ever experience sexual violence, while almost 40% of ever-married women have been subjected to either physical, sexual or emotional violence by their current or most recent partners and 27% of women aged 15-49 in Gambia have undergone some form of FGM in The Gambia .

One of the most contributing factors of GBV in our communities is the Harmful gender norms Gender stereotypes are sometimes used to attempt to justify violence against women. Cultural norms often dictate that men are aggressive, controlling, and dominant, while women are docile, subservient, and rely on men as providers. These norms can foster a culture of abuse outright, such as early marriage and forced marriage or female genital mutilation, the latter spurred by outdated and harmful notions of female sexuality and virginity

Another factor that is very common in our society is Hunger which is very unlikely in other countries but in a third world country it is very common. Just as empowering women can help eliminate hunger, food scarcity also leads to increased GBV .for example  In Malawi, where a 2013 survey revealed that 61% of women and girls said they had experienced sexual violence and 64% had experienced physical violence, an ongoing food crisis only worsened the situation. Women and girls face more early and forced marriages as families seek dowry payments and try to reduce their food bill. Women may be forced into sex work to survive, and money shortages increase tensions within families, which can lead to violence. 

There are multiple consequences of violence, having immediate and short-term to inter-generational effects. The consequences and costs of violence have impacts at the individual level (for survivors, perpetrators and others affected by violence), as well as within the family, community and wider society, which translate into costs at the national level.                           Some of the consequences and costs include:

• immediate injuries such as fractures and hemorrhaging, and long-term physical conditions (e.g. gastrointestinal, central nervous system disorders);
• mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, attempted suicide;
• sexual and reproductive health problems, such as sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), and other chronic conditions; sexual dysfunction; unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion; risks to maternal and fetal health (especially in cases of abuse during pregnancy);
• substance abuse (alcohol);
• poor social functioning skills and social isolation and marginalization;
• death for both women and their children (from neglect, injury, pregnancy-related-risks, homicide, suicide or HIV and AIDS-related);
• overall reduced or lost educational, employment, social, or political participation opportunities.
• expenditures (at the level of individual, family and public sector budgets) on medical, protection, judicial and social services.

The solution is "My Voice" which is a mobile application dedicated to the rights and prevention of violence against women and eradicating FGM. 

Services we provide:

• Emergency hotline: My voice has organise  a set of emergency numbers with a secret code just click on the emergency bottom and say the secret code word the number will be called immediately and you will get the required help you need 
• Information:Getting the right  and verified information can be quite a hustle with all the random  info on the internet these days so my voice provides users with A verified set of info from WHO and other prestigious organisations with all the needed information about GVB in a well organised and  oriented way  straight to the user. 
• Therapy section: we provide a free therapy section once a week with the victims go GBV in other to help them recover from any kind of trauma they may have been through. The therapy section also include victims of FGM as well and is medical treatment is need the therapist will refer them to a hospitals.
• Reporting FGM: Users from the app can use the emergency numbers to report FGM practices wether confirmed or suspected acts and their can be done anonymously without the user giving their identity for confidence and as a way of confidence.
• Partnership with NGO's: Due to our partnership with other organisations of GBV and report or workshop they are organising for women or classes all this information will be available on the app and user from the app can register for theses event without having to go there personally.
• Job opportunities: NGO's for GBV registered on the app will be giving updates about job opportunities for women on the app or even financial aid as well. 
• Awareness: we provides all the list of NGO's in Gambia and what they do 

My voice is marketed to any women with a basic smartphone and have been through any form of gender based violence or FGM.

The table below shows the ways in which  women who have gone through gender based violence are currently unserved and how my voice will help them.

Executive members: Each and every member of the executive team is well experience when it comes to the issues of gender based violence. the executive team is made up of three people namely Amie Sankareh who is the CEO Amie has participated in a lot of workshops events and programs related to gender based violence.Amie also has her own club called "rise up Gambia"which is a club for Gambian girls to help empower them. for this reason she has a lot of experience when it comes to gender based violence.the other member of the executive team is Sanou Sankareh who is an activist for gender based violence she was award the activist of the year in 2020 for her devotion and endless support for women. the last team executive member is Aji Fatou kasseh who is also an activist and also one of the  best therapist in The Gambia she is well known  for giving emotional support to women who have gone through any form of gender based violence. All the executive members of my voice are all experienced and have all the necessary requirements to serve its users. 

The teams include;

Programming: The programming team will create the app. They have already built a prototype in app inventor, which means that the app is will be  available to android users first before iPhone users. One of the team’s goal is to make My Voice  IOS compatible so that more people can benefit from the services we provide.   

Design: The design team designed the app based on the topic, our customers, the national and global market, our goals, mission and the features we wanted to include. They will make  sure that it was pleasing to the eye and easy to use at the same time. The team is currently working on the design of the features  that will be added in the app.  

Marketing and Sales:  The marketing team has evaluated the market size and identified the needs of Gambian market. Since the beginning they have researched and conducted surveys in order to ensure that my voice  provides every feature that is useful to the people who are affected by gender based violence and or FGM.

To understand the needs of our potential users we’ve made a survey. It contained relatable questions for us to discover answers to. Analysis of survey answers: 

The survey questions were answered by 367 Gambia women.These are there responds.

According to the answer on the survey 90% of women have been through at least one form of GVB which is a very high statistic. 

The report shows that only a few number of people have attended workshops for gender based violence which is one of the reasons why the number of victims for GBV is very high because people don't have enough knowledge regarding these issues. 

The respondents are not aware of any NGOs that support women even though there are about 30 NGOs engaging their activity on this matter. The most recent reforms in the legislation made in January 2019 are also unknown to the public.

most of the respondent are not aware of any apps in the market for gender based violence 

In the previous years I have worked with a lot of organisations for gender based violence and FGM. like BAFROW  It is a grassroots gender empowering non-governmental organisation that  advocates for women's right & welfare campaigns against FGM, promotes alternative rights of passage in Gambia & encourages positive traditional practices for girls. I participated in a lot of the campaigns and some of the workshops they organised I have gained quite a lot of experience from the stories of these women and life lessons the will me with me forever. I also volunteered in the Association for Promoting Girls & Women's Advancement  for 2 years it is a  registered NGO which advocates for Gambian women's health, economic empowerment & fights against female genital mutilation in rural & urban areas.in the two years I volunteered a learn a lot and  have able to help a lot of girls and have an impact in their lives.I have volunteered in a lot of other organisations as well with all the knowledge and experience I have gained from these organisation it will help a lot in developing the features of the app because I know what theses women have gone through and I know what they need and that is exactly what will be in the app.

In other to provide our users with the best services we sent our prototypes of the features the will be available on the app to the some of the victims that have gone through either one form of gender based violence or the other and even FGM after sending them these prototypes we got a lot of feedbacks from them and we used those feedback to in the features of the app and add new ones as well for it to be more convenient, effective and user friendly.

"My Voice" has big chances to differentiate from all of the competitors, in terms of its efficiency, quality, and durability. My Voice is not the only app in the market that aims to helped GBV but unlikely My Voice  has all the features needed to properly eradicate or solve the problem of GBV.

All the other apps that we have encountered in the global market have developed only one or a couple of features. Furthermore, most of them require internet access to access while My Voice does not Most of features of My Voice can be access without internet access because we understand that not all users can have regular Access to the internet. in addition to that the most important features of My voice is something that have never been done before like the access to having a free therapy section for gender based violence  is something that is not available in any of the apps out there, also the accessing of hotlines with a secret code word is a feature that is unique to only my voice another unique feature of the app is the job notification and workshops for women.the most distinctive feature is the anonymous therapy section for victims of FGM and gender based violence which is a positive way of impacting their communities, societies, families and most importantly their lives as well. Although some of the other features are present in other apps my voice improves those features like the information about GBV section a lot lot of apps and websites provides info about GBV but our information section is verified by prestigious organisations like WHO  which is a very liable source of information.All the other features are well developed to suite their users needs.

The team will  promote the  app in different platforms of social media and will continue to do so. Their main goals are to increase the number of our customers and make sure that My Voice is always up to date with their needs.
Above all, what makes our app special is its ability to adjust to the needs of the Gambian people who are affected by gender based violence in one way or the other . We make sure that in the future My Voice will globally be used to solve the problem of gender based violence. It should be noted that not all of our competitors invest a lot on marketing, branding, or promotion;
Their activity is not known to the customers; their business expansion is limited and therefore not competitive.We want EyeCare to be the first app to impact the lives of thousands and millions of lives. Our team
will work continuously to ensure the My Voice is in its fullest capacity.

By next year my voice will be available on all platforms both android and IOS devices.One of our goals is to reach 3000 users of the app and we plan on reaching this goal by doing a lot of social media Marketing in order to get more users.

 Another goal is to raise a lot of awareness about gender based violence because most people are going through this without even knowing it because gender based violence comes In a lot of forms so by creating more awareness about what gender based violence it will have a lot of impact in their lives by being able to identify their problem and seeking for the solution. 

We also plan on doing a lot of workshops for women in their communities and educating them about GBV and also organising self defence workshops for girls of all ages because Self-defense training not only  helps you protect yourself but others too. Plus, training helps you become physically and emotionally fit. Having the ability to defend yourself increases your self-esteem and boosts your confidence. Benefits like these only add to the reason to learn self-defense which will help to reduce the number of gender based violence in the country.

Almost 10000 of The Gambian population of women have gone through GBV and this has caused a huge trauma In their lives and their families as well. In other to help these women my voice will offer a free therapy section for then by registering in the app for therapy section and their will be therapist also registerd in the app ready to help them  to go back to being their old selves again but it will also help improve their lives in a better way which will have an impact on their families and society as well.

 My voice will also help to empower women by providing job opportunities for women on the app and I other to achieve this the partners of my voice will be posting available job opportunities on the app.

"My voice" is a mobile application that will be created using Android studio and swift.  Android Studio is the official integrated development environment for Google's Android operating system, built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development. While  Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.These two softwares is what will be used to built my voice but before the development and programming of the app a prototype will be created using MIT App inventor which is an intuitive, visual programming environment. My voice solely relies on technology for its functionality.

In the first year after the app launches on play store and app store our targeted number of users is 2000. Based on the research made they're are almost 200 reported cases of gender based violence every month so with this statistic we can easily reach this  target next year.

Technical barriers: in other to be able to launch the app a whole team of developers and designers are required which the we don not have yet because of the lack of funds to employ these people. 

Financial barrier: in other for the app to function in its full capacity having funds is a main requirement for us to operate in term of getting a space or office and getting computers and internet for the office, payment to the fees in apple store and play store, cleaners and etc.

cultural barriers: it will be very difficult to stop people from their traditional ways and culture specially in Gambia where FGM is one of their strongest cultural practices a lot of awareness and law enforcement will be needed for it 

"My Voice" is also in partnership with five NGO for gender based violence and FGM in The Gambia and this benefit as much as my voice does providing the best to its users.Below are the organisations in partnership with My Voice.

BAFROW  It is a grassroots gender empowering non-governmental organisation that  advocates for women's right & welfare campaigns against FGM, promotes alternative rights of passage in Gambia & encourages positive traditional practices for girls.we partner with them by adding their hot line to report FMG on our app and also by featuring some of their upcoming events in our app by sending notifications to our app users and also sending them dates of the events as well.

Association for Promoting Girls & Women's Advancement 
APGWA is a Banjul registered NGO which advocates for Gambian women's health, economic empowerment & fights against female genital mutilation in rural & urban areas.MY Voice adds  their hot line to report FMG on our app and also by featuring some of their upcoming events in our app by sending notifications to our app users and also sending them dates of the events as well.

Future In Our Hands 

FIOH is a grassroots NGO whose intervention areas includes FGM & early marriages, youth & women's capacity building, HIV Aids, gender equality, agriculture, enterprise, skills training in town, villages & rural areas.my voice helps to connect users to the opportunities that FIOH has to offer in a more efficient and easier way.

GAMCOTRAP 
GAMCOTRAP champions women's reproductive rights, is anti detrimental traditional practices such as FGM & advances the rights of women & children.my voice helps to connect Users to  speak to specialist of gender based violence to help them emotionally and to rid of the trauma they have been through with the help of GAMCOTRAP.

Islamic Relief Association
ISRA provides aid to the underprivileged, especially women, skills training, gives loans, & workshop awareness on women's issues like FGM & domestic violence.My voice adds all the information and training done on the workshop into the app for women who were not able to attend the workshop and didn't have access to it can be able to access everything on the app. 

These are some of the services we offer to our users

• Not knowing the right number to call during  emergency situations can be very frustrating and sometimes even deadly so My voice has organise  a set of emergency numbers with a secret code just click on the emergency bottom and say the secret code the number will be called immediately 
• Getting the right  and verified information can be quite a hustle with all the random  info on the internet these days my voice provides user with a verified set of info from WHO and other prestigious organisations with all the needed information about GVB in a well organised manner. 
• Majority of the women in Gambia are not aware of any NGO for gender based violence so we provide all the list of NGO's in Gambia and what they do
• Getting  the required help after being a victim of gender based violence is essential my voice  provides a free therapy section once a week with the victims registered on the app
• Being able to open up to talk about being a victim of any form of GBV  can be very difficult sometimes specially with someone you know afraid they will judge you  We have organisations and numbers that you can call with anonymous people that will be able to listen and get you the help you need without anyone knowing about it.
• self-defence is a major way to prevent GVB but most women don't have the necessary  skill for self-defence  We organise workshops where we teach women about self-defence with the partnership with other GBV organisation in Gambia

I. Initial Funding
As of now, only personal funds are being funnelled into the business due to the business’s status as a sole proprietorship. These are insufficient on their own, and will not be able to support My voice’s goals in the long term. For the first few months, we will be in deficit due to the relatively high costs of the services my voice depends on. For this reason, we are requesting $12,500 in investment to help us cover initial costs. We expect to break even within the first year. 
II. App Monetization
Since My voice will be a free app, we will earn revenue through in-app advertisements in the form of interstitials. We will use a mediation service such as Google Admob to serve the ads in between screen transitions, where they will be natural and unobtrusive.To maximise revenue we will display ads that pertain to gender based violence and FGM. Sponsorships will also aid My voice as a growing company. To attract sponsors, we will
convey through our value proposition the story and goal that My is striving to
achieve. We will also offer specific deliverables to potential corporate sponsors, who can gain exposure via our brand and campaigns.
III. Projections 
We have projected My voice’s financial operations for the next five fiscal years. We estimate a 5% market uptake within the first year. The number of MAU (monthly active users) on the app in years following were calculated with a logarithmic model that takes into account our market size and the potential for company expansion. Overall, we assumed that the average eCPM rate for Google Admob on iOS is $7.00, and on Android,$4.18. Costs for the business were determinations using the pricing models of the app’s
database and API services. The calculations rely on our predictions of average read, write, and delete operations per session, as well as aggregate storage. Additionally, following the standard recommendation to allocate 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue to marketing, we subtracted costs for advertising, public relations, and publicity.

The table below shows the financial plan of My voice for the next five years.