Safecity Monthly Updates: December 2018

We have had a year of love, growth, solidarity, innovation and development exciting in every aspect. We would like to thank all our donors, partners, collaborators, volunteers, interns, team members and families for their love, support and constant motivation. We wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a Fulfilling New Year 2019.

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.

Youth Innovation Challenge

We present to you the winners of the Youth Innovation Challenge 2018-“Creating a Resilient and Inclusive Mumbai”

1st Prize– Team HerLiving (women-centric housing in big cities)

2nd Prize– Zesters (creating gender-inclusive safe spaces from an architectural aspect)

3rd Prize– MPower Forever (empowering youth through education to build gender-inclusive communities)

On 13th December we had the Youth Innovation Challenge final pitches at Dosti House, U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai. It was the culmination of a 4 month social incubator where 10 teams presented their prototypes on solutions to Create a Resilient and Inclusive City. This was an extension the Urban Thinkers Campus we hosted for the UN Habitat’s World Urban Campaign on the same theme. Two teams from Save the Children India wowed the audience with their rapping and artistic skills to address gender bias and inequality. A big ‘Thank you’ to the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai for hosting us and for the amazing pictures!

Our winners with the Jury members and Program partners

The talented teams from Save the Children, India

Red Dot Foundation- Safecity is one of the Laureates for the 2018 Edition of the Public Peace Prize / Prix du public pour la paix for being an ‘Initiative of Peace’, our virtual platform, contributing to making cities safer by promoting equal access to public spaces for all, especially women. We are so grateful!

The Public Peace Prize (PPP) has the specific mission of making known to the general public the lesser known local, national and international peacemakers and peace initiatives. You can have a look at all the winners here.

Best Director- Nirbhaya Mai, Asifa Mai

Supreet K Singh, our Director and COO, won the Best Director Award for her film Nirbhaya Mai, Asifa Mai at this year’s Women’s Safety and Empowerment Shortfilm Contest by the U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai! A powerful film that talks about the normalisation of sexual violence, it urges you to do your bit to make your cities safer.

If you haven’t watched this beautiful film yet, here’s the link- https://youtu.be/rRqS5LeXzA0

Supreet receiving her award from Tisca Chopra

Nirbhaya Mai, Asifa Mai

Conceptualised and Directed by Supreet K Singh, this short film reminds us of the many gruesome cases of sexual harassment in our country in an attempt to be more sensitive and empathetic regarding sexual harassment, so that we, as a society, can take collective steps towards reducing it. By reminding us that Nirbhaya could’ve been our mother, our sister, our daughter, our friend or even us, this short film calls out to each one of us to take a stand against gender-based violence and to make our cities safer.

Sankalp Global Forum- Outreach Partners

Red Dot Foundation is pleased to be an Outreach Partner of the Sankalp Global Summit 201. The 10th Sankalp Global Summit focussed on “Agenda 3 Billion – Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems,’ across five high-impact sectors, namely – agriculture, clean energy, health & WASH, digital financial inclusion, and livelihoods & gender.

Our Founder, Elsa D’Silva also moderated a panel on ‘Bridging the Gender Gap at Work’ at the Forum.

Updates from Mumbai

Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, moderated a panel at Times of India, Mumbai’s “Principals Conclave” on Safety of Students in Schools. It was shocking to find out that many schools did not have a Child Protection Policy and were not aware of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO )Act.

Safecity conducts awareness workshops on the POCSO Act at Schools for both parents and children. If you would like us to conduct a workshop, do let us know at [email protected]

Career Guidance Sessions in BMC Schools

Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, along with Chevening India Alumni conducted sessions for the students of Grade 9 in a BMC school in Colaba, Mumbai. This was sponsored by the British High Commission and is part of the Chevening Lecture Series. Last week Tania Fernandes, Head of Training and Outreach facilitated a Gender Sensitivity Workshop for the Chevening Alumni and this week Supreet K Singh facilitated a Career Guidance Session where the alumni shared their life journeys with the students. Together, they have reached out to 121 students.

Updates from Delhi

Supreet K Singh and Tania Fernandes presented Safecity’s work of community engagement in rural Maharashtra and Bihar to the donors – Society for Development Alternatives in Delhi. They were joined by our community partner Sanjay from Suzlon Foundation for the discussions.

Updates from Patna

Naina Jha conducted a workshop on the topic “Puberty and Menstruation” at Aghor Prakash School on 8th December in collaboration with the organisation- Gupshup for a group of 60 girls. Hesitant to even say the word ‘period’ in the start, by the end of the workshop the girls were busting myths along with Naina. You can read more about it here.

Safecity at Harvard

Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, was invited by Harvard’s South Asian Student Association to talk about data-based solutions for sexual abuse and her journey as an entrepreneur.

Safecity in Malaysia

We Care Workshop: Tackling a Culture that condones Sexual Harassment.

Our Malaysian partners Sisterhood Alliance collaborated with Monsters Among Us – MAU (working for women’s safety related programs and children), Gender Studies, University of Malaya, UM Academic Staff Association, Malaysia Academic Movement(GERAK) to spread the message of the need for safe spaces. It has been introducing the Safecity mobile app to the people in Malaysia. Their work was even covered by a local newspaper. We are grateful to the President Radziah Radzi and Tim-Tim Exco committed to the cause.

Safecity Trinidad and Tobago

Our Safecity partners in Trinidad and Tobago- MsBraFit alongwith Campus Ambassadors at the University of West Indies have been raising awareness on sexual violence on campus and during carnival.

Corporate Workshops

This month we have been conducting workshops for Corporates like Saavn Media, Ogilvy and Mather and others. In case you would like us to conduct POSH & Gender Sensitivity workshops at your corporate, please do get in touch with us at [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.

Check out December’s storified tweetchats here – Breaking the Stigma of Mental Health, Building Safer Communities for Survivors of Abuse, Education for Underprivileged Children and A year of #MeToo- Learnings and Challenges.

Survey on Workplace Safety

Safecity is doing a survey on workplace safety and it would be great to have your inputs.

We would appreciate if you take a minute out to fill this survey- https://goo.gl/wPcdTN

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!

This festive season please do consider donating to Safecity by clicking here or on the donate button on our page http://reddotfoundation.org

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