Safecity Monthly Update- July 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.

Safecity speaks at United Nations Habitat III PrepCom3

Supreet K Singh, Director of Safecity, spoke at the Urban Speakers Corner on 25th July, 2016 at Surabaya, Indonesia. This session was a part of the three day long United Nations Habitat3 PrepCom3 event.

Supreet speaking at the Urban Speakers Corner at UN Habitat3 PrepCom3

Supreet spoke about Safecity’s work of crowdsourcing stories of sexual harassment in public spaces on Google maps and how this data is then used to create sustainable solutions in communities through interventions, workshops and by involving stakeholders like the police, politicians and the government.

Supreet with the Mayor of Surabaya- Ms.Reshma

Supreet with the youth of Surabaya pledging to make their city safe.

In particular, Supreet’s talk revolved around how Safecity has helped facilitate the creation of sustainable communities through interventions customised to each place and problem. She also shared examples of Safecity’s art based interventions like the ‘Staring Eyes‘ in Sanjay camp and Lal Kuan in Delhi which significantly brought down the number of cases of staring, commenting and other forms of sexual harassment.

Supreet planting a tree in the name of Safecity in the mangroves of Surabaya.

An Educational Interview

For the past three years, Safecity has been conducting workshops in schools creating awareness about Child Sexual Abuse among both children and parents and the rights they have under the POCSO (Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. This is an interview with one of our partners, an educationist.

Q. Do you think the education system is good enough or is a holistic education necessary?
A. I personally feel the education system right now is haphazard and completely confusing. They are advocating mass promotion, so the job of actually providing the right type of education and to ensure learning is left to us. No one is serious about their studies any more. Children do not even take their exams seriously since they need a bare minimum to be promoted to the next class. In spite of this we try to make studies more creative and make education more interesting for them. We don’t just spoon-feed them with information but encourage them to learn through play, games, projects and activities. It is up to the teachers and schools to make education more holistic rather than just creating bookworms.

Click here to read the entire interview.

Creating Solutions and Movements through Positive Discussions 

Safecity uses Twitter as a medium to create powerful discussions and generate solutions around important issues related to safety and gender and has most recently been discussing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through a gendered lens. In order to have rounded and cultured discussions, Safecity invites individuals and organisations to curate the Twitter handle on a weekly basis. This brings in myriad perspectives born from each one’s experiences and career paths.

Abhijith Asok -Head Data Analyst at Safecity heads a team of brilliant minds. Rudraksh Tuwani, one of our Data Analysis volunteers conducted a Sentiment Analysis of the Twitter account over a period of the past six months. What shone through was the positivite approach and positive replies irrespective of who curated the account.

Though the handle has been curated by numerous personalities Safecity has always maintained a positive approach to problems and urges others to find solutions. Instead of focusing on the negative issues Safecity encourages its Followers to hope for a better and safer life for all.

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 Aditi’s story on our blog here.

When we asked Aditi what changed for her since she began working with Safecity, this is what she had to say –

“I’ve had the privilege of seeing what hard work and dedication looks like when I watch my immediate colleagues battle against deadlines and it’s been brilliant to absorb and implement that work ethic into my own life. I’m glad that I decided to be a part of and contribute towards the growth of this wonderful organisation”

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 Vandita Morarka, a Law and Policy student, who began working at Safecity as the Youth Outreach Officer  and has helped pool in a lot of talent along with her own desire to change the world and make it a better, safer place to live in here.

“Working with Safecity has helped me employ my ideas for facilitating change in gender related issues through youth support. The work ethic and environment here is rich and invigorating and each day is a learning experience. The joy that working with Safecity gives me is unmatched! A common sentiment through college life is that of wanting to change the world we live in, for the better, Safecity has given me, and countless others, a chance to do that.”

SDG 4- Quality Education For All– A Gendered Perspective

For the entire month of July, Safecity made a case about the lack of quality education or even basic education being available for all, especially with relevance to women and girls and the problems they face due to lack of it. Through numerous Tweetchats, expert curators and blogs, our focus was on UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 – ‘Quality Education for All’.

Check out our comprehensive blog on all the discussions we conducted this month on SDG 4 here.

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 on the issue of lack of access to even a basic education for all, especially women and girls which deprives them of many opportunities in life and leaves them incapacitated when faced with circumstances. The focus was on SDG 4 – Quality Education and different aspects related to it.

Check out the storified tweetchats here, here, here and here.

That’s all for this month. Keep watching this space and we’ll keep you updated on all our work and exciting activities every month!