Safecity Monthly Newsletter : June 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.
Impacting Change with Digital- Google SMB Heroes Award
Red Dot Foundation (Safecity) was one of Google India’s Regional Winners of SMB Heroes which recognises organisations using the internet to power their growth. We won the award in the category- ‘Impacting Change with Digital’ which celebrates businesses that have gone the extra mile beyond business growth by influencing the lives of people around them and more.
(L-R) Goa SMB Hero Shrikant Parulekar, Shalini Girish, Manguirish Pai Raiker, SMB winners- Shuchi Pandya and Elsa Marie DSilva, Parulekar, Yogesh Andlay
Representing Safecity at the World Merit Youth Summit 2017
Our Director and COO, Supreet K Singh, represented Safecity at the World Merit Youth Summit 2017 in Bohol where she spoke about Safecity and the many ways through which our work addresses Sustainable Development Goals 5 -Gender Equality & 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Featured as one of 10 Social Entrepreneurs with World Changing Innovations
In collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Project X-ITE by University of Denver, Prosono (a digital marketing company) developed a social media campaign called ‘10 Days 10 Entrepreneurs’ highlighting the incredible work of 10 social enterprises that participated in the recent Flight to Denver Solutions Summit bootcamp and Safecity is extremely thrilled and grateful to be one of the organisations featured.
Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk
On 29th June, Safecity hosted the Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk in Mumbai, India at JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar, supported by Shethepeople. The Vital Voices Mentoring Walk is a global tradition and we were thrilled to host it for the second time. Our Outreach Partner was Reboot Network which is a career community for women and venue partner was JW Marriott Sahar.
The mentors were amazing and accomplished women from The US Consulate Mumbai, Private, Media and Development sectors and others who have been path breakers in their own right. The day began with a welcome note by Supreet K Singh, our Director and COO followed by the key note address by Ms. Jennifer Larson from the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai who spoke about the importance of encouraging women to keeping moving forward.
About 20 pairs of Mentors and Mentees got a chance to get to know each other and plan future sessions. You can read more about it here and also watch Jessica Xalxo as she speaks of her experience being part of the first walk.
World Environment Day 2017
Safecity at Global Diplomacy Lab
Our Founder & CEO, Elsa D’Silva, was recently in Argentina for the Global Diplomacy Lab (GDL) which is an initiative of the German Foreign Office and sponsored by the BMW Foundation amongst others. As a Responsible Leader of the BMW Foundation and an awardee of the UNAOC/BMW Foundation’s Intercultural Innovation Award, ElsaMarie represented Red Dot Foundation at this important gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 21-24 June. The theme was Creating Cutting-edge Regional Networks to prevent Mass Atrocities and Genocide. You can read more about it here.
Weekly Newswrap- Sexual Violence: A Global Pandemic
In this series put together under our Policy and Legal Team under Vandita Morarka, Safecity examines sexual violence and related issues that have come up in the news, on a weekly basis, published every Saturday. This is an attempt to improve awareness regarding incidents of sexual violence and related matters, so that we, as a society can take steps towards collective action to reduce its incidence. You can read them here.
Safecity qualified for 2 contests
Global Compact on Migration
Red Dot Foundation has received special accreditation to the Global Compact preparatory process for Migration by the United Nations Member States.
We would love your inputs related to migration policies so that we can consolidate the feedback and revert to the UN. Safecity has special accreditation to be part of these meetings and contribute. We would like you to be part of this process with us. Due credit will be given in the final statement if you leave your email and contact details.
You can check our page for more details on the Global Compact for Migration.
For any queries, kindly email [email protected] or [email protected]
Creating Awareness about Child Sexual Abuse in Patna
To expand the work of Safecity in Patna, Bihar, Naina Jha conducted a workshop creating awareness about Child Sexual Abuse on 23rd June at S R Vidyapeeth School in Patna for the students of Standard 5. You can read more about it here.
After the session, the students were able to define and recognize abuse, threats and bribery. They learned how abuse could affect them, how to protect themselves from abuse and whom to approach if something happened to them. The highlight of the session was when every student promised to share their learning with their parents and especially, their friends, to create awareness about the same.”
News from Ahmedabad
While we are talking about education and safety on our Twitter handle @pinthecreep, Noorjahan, our Program and Outreach Officer in Ahmedabad is talking about it amongst the people.
At a meeting yesterday with the women of Behrampura, they spoke about the new academic year which will soon begin. The schools in Behrampura have classes for students from Standard 1 to 8. The women spoke about school re-opening and new admissions. Noorjahan created awareness among them about Right to Education (RTE), along with measures in which they can keep their area safe as well as their children.
They plan to conduct a safety audit of the area and submit a report of the same to school so that they can work hand-in-hand in making education safer for children.
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 Krupa’s story on our blog here.
When we asked Krupa about her experience doing an internship with Safecity, this is what she had to say –
“I had never imagined that I would learn so much from my very first internship. I got a chance to express my ideas and opinions about issues and working with the team gradually made me feel more inspired to do something for society. It gave me an identity at the age of 19 and being a part of social work helped boost my confidence.”
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 Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Vihang Jumle, who writes about his experience with Safecity and his journey with us so far here.
“I joined Safecity with the hope that my analytical skills would help make our society a safer place to live indirectly if directly wasn’t possible. Seeing real work in action at Safecity, I decided to take up a more challenging role which was to evaluate and ensure that Safecity created serious impact in the daily lives of children and women.”
We are looking for a Program and Outreach Officer for Delhi and Bangalore. Do send your CV to [email protected]
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 the issue of Education and Safety, taking into account the role that educational institutions play in creating a safe learning environment for their students, issues like sanitation, harassment, bullying, commuting to and from places of education, the role of the Government and Child Sexual Abuse were also discussed. We also had a Tweetchat talking about Child Labour and how we can end it conducted by Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC) on 12th June- World Day against Child Labour.
Check out the storified tweetchats here- Making Schools Safer for Children, Stop Child Labour, How does safety impact access to education and Addressing Child Sexual Abuse.
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16 July to 5 Aug– Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, will be representing us at the Stanford Draper Hills Summer School on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law
- Online consultations for Global Compact on Migration – Red Dot Foundation has received special accreditation to the Global Compact preparatory process for Migration by the United Nations Member States. We would like you to send us feedback which we can incorporate into our response at these sessions. July: https://goo.gl/forms/ANMsW9eI76bmbadG3
- Every Friday at 9 pm IST/ 1130 am EST join us on Twitter @pinthecreep
