Safecity Monthly Update – February 2016
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.
February was an exciting month for us with lots of activities and new milestones. Read on to see what we’ve been doing.
Safecity Workshops with Community Women in Dharavi
On the 1st and 18th of February we were invited by MAVIM to their Dharavi Centre to conduct workshops on gender and sexual violence with 19 and 23 women respectively.
Read more about these workshops here and here.
Anu and Riddhima from Safecity with the MAVIM Team and community women
Volunteer Experience: Community Art Project on Women’s Safety and Empowerment
Invited by the US Consulate General, Mumbai, American mural artist and educator Joel Bergner, local artist Krishna Sharma, and local students, including some volunteers from Safecity worked together to create a stunning mural with a women’s empowerment theme for the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai in the first week of February, 2016.
A volunteer from Safecity who was part of this art project wrote about her experience on our blog. Read her beautiful note here.
Volunteers with the completed mural installed at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2016
First Safecity Youth Workshops in Bangalore
On February 6, 2016 Safecity was invited to conduct two workshops on “Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Harassment” at Alliance University in Bangalore with 16 students from B.Com Sem II and 47 students from Sem VI students.
Read more about these workshops on our blog here.
Riddhima from Safecity facilitating a workshop at Alliance University, Bangalore
Safecity College Workshops
We conducted two workshops on Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Harassment at Wilson College on February 5, 2016 with 53 students and on February 12, 2016 at HR College with around 30 students.
See short reports and pictures from these workshops on our Facebook page here and here.
Ashwini from Safecity facilitating a workshop
Safecity at the Urban Thinkers Campus, Delhi
Urban Thinkers Campus is an initiative of UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign (WUC), conceived as an open space for critical exchange between urban actors.
The Urban Thinkers Campus was a prelude to the Habitat III (www.habitat3.org) Summit in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. HFH India held this event as a part of its ‘Inclusive Smart Cities’ conference series, which the focus on – ‘SANITATION’ and ’SAFETY’.
Habitat for Humanity International, as a member of the WUC, is responsible for and heads the ‘Civil Society’ group of the Habitat-III.
Supreet from Safecity speaking at the Urban Thinkers Campus
HFH India invited Safecity as a partner to the Urban Thinkers Campus which was held in New Delhi on 11th and 12th of February 2016. The conference witnessed top experts in the sector of Sanitation and Safety, who discussed possible solutions under the ‘City we Need’ banner..
Safecity was a panelist on 3 of the total sessions across the two day event on Women & Children: The Sanitized City We Need, Role of Information Technologies to Improve Urban Safety and Women & Children the Safe City We Need.
Read more about it here.
Safecity Know Your Rights Workshop at Kehkasha
On the February 13, 2016 Safecity was invited to be a part of ‘Kehkasha – a galaxy of stars’ an endeavor by Avanti Foundation and The Blue Ribbon Movement to bring together thousands of girls who have walked through the journey of leadership.
As a part of this, we conducted an hour long “Know Your Rights” workshop with 30 adolescent girls, ages 13 to 16 years, about gender and child sexual abuse.
Read more about this fun workshop on our blog here.
Riddhima and Anu from Safecity with the girls
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, Jessica’s story on our blog here.
Jessica with other participants during our My Access Campaign
She writes poignantly about her experience on working with Safecity as a blogger – “As for blogging, it was a relief to be able to put my voice out into the World and speak about issues that have deeply troubled me. I felt liberated and empowered, something that I had never felt before.”
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 Anu Salelkar, our Program and Outreach Officer on her journey with Safecity, her work and what keeps her going here.
Report Sexual Violence in public Spaces on Safecity
We are documenting stories of sexual violence in public spaces through crowdsourced data and tech. This indicates location based trends that are visualized on a map as hotspots.
Some of the recent reports we have received are deeply troubling….
- Sexual abuse by the driver of Seabird Tourist Buses on Goa Bangalore route – “When the bus reached Anand Rao Circle, morning around 8.40 am in an attempt to wake me up (I was sleeping on last single upper seat), the driver grabbed my breast. I woke up with a shock and didn’t realise what had happened, he then informed me we have reached the last stop. I collected my bags & left the bus, still in a state of sleep & shock.”
- Om Sai Beach Huts in Goa is not safe for female solo travellers – While the owner was drunk he told me that he and the staff were watching me to see if I was sleeping with my friend. (who was there and staying in a seperate room) And that he called them to check what we were doing, and that the ENTIRE STAFF was giving him information about my activities and whereabouts.What bothers me most is NOT that he hit on me eventually – but that he and your staff were watching me and they were reporting to you what I was doing. That does not make me feel safe, in fact, because of this I have many doubts about the overall safety of the place. The hut and bathroom had holes in the walls where someone could see inside. I overlooked them, but now I doubt that someone was watching me while I slept and changed clothes and other things which require privacy.
If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual violence in public spaces, please report on www.maps.safecity.in.
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 held two tweetchats, one on Sexism in pop culture and our daily life and the second discussing Women’s Health and Endometriosis Awareness.
Check out the storified tweetchats on our blog here and here.
One of our Twitter curators – Prerna who hosted a discussion on Endometriosis on @pinthecreep shared her experience with us saying – “Had a very nice time curating it, thanks for the opportunity. Hope you liked the tweetchat and it was something different from the regular. Stay in touch :)”
Poster from one of our tweetchats
This is all for February. Keep watching this space and we’ll keep you updated on all our work and exciting activities every month!