Safecity Monthly Newsletter : August 2017
Safecity is growing exponentially and we’re constantly working hard to translate our vision to reality. Because we don’t want you to miss out on our work, we’ve decided to put together a monthly column to tell you about what we’ve been up to. You can sign up for our newsletter here.
MIT Solve Challenge
Solve — MIT’s initiative that brings together problem-solvers of all stripes to tackle the world’s pressing problems — has four new global challenges for 2017: brain health; sustainable urban communities; women and technology; and youth, skills, and the workforce of the future.
Safecity will be pitching its solution at the MIT Solve Challenge in New York on 17th Sept for the category- Women and Technology. You can support us by voting here- https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/women-and-technology/solutions/1628
The steps to vote are
Step 1: Log in or create an account at solve.mit.edu/login.
Step 2: Explore the finalists’ solutions on each of our four Challenge pages: (We are under the category- Women and Technology)
Step 3: Vote for your favorites. On each solution page, you’ll see a vote button at the top. Click the button to vote for your favorites! You can vote once per solution.
Legal Roundtables
Safecity is organising Legal Roundtables under different themes of sexual violence across colleges in different cities, with SheThePeopleTV. Our aim is to equip young persons with knowledge of their rights and work with them towards identifying and resolving gaps in laws and policies.
On 24th August, 2017, Safecity and Shethepeople collaborated to host the second in a series of Legal Roundtables. It was held at Shivaji College, University of Delhi, where students were given insights about sexual violence in public places.
Attended by 160+ students, the panel consisted of Mr. Manu Yadav, Ms. Ritu Priya and Ms. Bhani Rachel Bali and was moderated by Rahat Sharma.
Women Peacebuilders
Our week-long series on #WomenPeacebuilders was an attempt to honour and showcase women leaders who are creating peace in varying ways and highlight individual struggles and find common threads that bind stories of peace towards #InternationalYouthDay
Read more at https://safecity.in/infocus-women-peacebuilders/
The School Leaders Network
Elsa Dsilva, our Founder, is a part of #TheSchoolLeadersNetwork and joined the Leadership Meet with some of the top school principals & Secretary of Education on 23rd August, 2017.
Legal Resources
Safecity’s website now has a repository of Legal Resources created by the Policy and Legal team, headed by Vandita Morarka. It contains resources on laws related to sexual violence under the IPC, cyberspace, workplace, educational institutions, domestic space and those related to children. It also contains information on how to file an FIR and apply for legal aid. You can access the legal resources here.
Creating awareness about ‘Puberty and Menstruation in Patna
Naina Jha, our Program and Outreach Officer in Patna, spoke to 45 girls at School of Creative Learning on 8 August, 2017 about ‘Puberty and Menstruation’ dispelling common myths about menstruation and giving tips on hygiene. You can read more about it here.
Updates from Mumbai
On 9th August, Ashwini Syed conducted an awareness workshop about Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Harassment for 80 students at Balbharti College Of Commerce. The students were interactive and spoke of their experiences of harassment. You can read more about it here.
News from Ahmedabad
On Independence Day, Noorjahan Ansari conducted a workshop creating awareness about Child Sexual Abuse in Ahmedabad.
She began the workshop with a simple game engaging the kids to think of what the word ‘safety’ meant to them. Through the game she explained the concepts of safety, personal space and encouraged them to list their trusted adults. With the help of a movie, she reiterated the No-Go-Tell rule with a few safety tips and the Child Helpline number.
Safecity Emerging Leaders
Safecity is celebrating the journey of people who have emerged as leaders as our campaigns progressed in their communities through our blog series “Safecity Emerging Leaders”. Read the inspiring stories of these individuals who are passionate about making their neighbourhoods safer with Safecity and have taken action in their own special ways.
Read this month’s Emerging Leader Adriana Rakshana‘s story on our blog here.
When we asked Adriana about her experience doing an internship with Safecity, this is what she had to say –
“Through Safecity, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other like-minded individuals who also have a passion to learn about India’s legal systems and are looking to make a change and aid in creating a better position for women and others in need of assistance. The internship made me so much more aware of the different facets of problems that women face in all walks of life. Researching and writing about the current state of laws in India helped me realise how limited current legislation is with regard to issues of gender and sexuality in the country.”
We have several opportunities for you to volunteer and take action. Do check our website.
Know Our Team
Know Our Team is a new blog series that attempts to bring to you the stories of our team, share our experiences, why we do what we do and special moments that have left an indelible mark in each of our lives.
Read this month’s blog by our Program and Outreach Officer in Patna, Naina Jha, who writes about her experience with Safecity and her journey with us so far here.
“I began working for Safecity from May 2017 and the journey so far has been great. It helped me to connect with children through awareness workshops on various important topics. Working with Safecity made me realise how we can empower others just by making them aware of their rights and laws. I feel more empowered after working with Safecity as it has given me a platform to contribute towards the betterment of others. Most importantly, I got to learn so much from team members at Safecity.”
We are looking for a Program and Outreach Officer for Delhi and Bangalore. Do send your CV to info@reddotfoundation.org
TweetChats
Through our tweetchats we are trying to facilitate important conversations around various issues related to gender in general and women’s issues in particular.
Our curators this month conducted four TweetChats around Sustainable Development Goal 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities. The chats covered different aspects of the goal like regulatory and policy changes and reservation for women as a hope for equality.
Check out the storified tweetchats here- Regulatory and Policy Changes to create Safer Society, Reservation for Women: Last Hope for Equality? and Sustainable Cities and Communities #SDG11.
- Legal Roundtables
- 1st & 7th Sept- Training- Project 21 is the launch event of the Safecity Mobile App and TheRedElephantFoundation‘s Saahas app. If you would like to join as partners for our solidarity event on September 21 the International Day of Peace or even collaborate on a longer basis sign up using the link to the form here.
- 13th Sept- Participating in Character Day
- 17th Sept– We will be presenting our solution in the MIT Solve Challenge under ‘Women and Technology’in New York. You can also participate by voting for us in the Community Award Challenge. We appreciate your support. https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/women-and-technology/…/1628
- 17th Sep – Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, will be speaking at the Social Good Summit in New York
- 19th Sep – Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, will be speaking at New York University
- 21st Sep – Safecity Mobile App launch at Dosti House, US Consulate Mumbai
- 21st Sep – Safecity Mobile App launch at Rise Summit, Pune
- 21st Sep – Safecity Mobile App Global Launch at Posner Centre, Denver, USA
- 30th Sep – Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, will be speaking at the Vital Voices NorthWest summit in Seattle, US
- Every Friday at 9 pm IST/ 1130 am EST join us on Twitter @pinthecreep
