Safecity Monthly Updates : February 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.
GuideStar India NGO Transparency Awards!
Red Dot Foundation- Safecity is one of the winners of the GuideStar India NGO Transparency Awards!
GuideStar India launched the GuideStar India NGO Transparency Awards to recognise organisations that practise and voluntarily demonstrate their transparency and accountability in the public domain with a need to illuminate the transparency level of civil society organisations to inspire greater trust in their work and garner support for their cause. They received 717 applications out of which 307 are declared winners!
http://www.guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=6388
One among the 50 Most Impactful Social Innovators in the world
Our Founder, Elsa D’Silva, received the “50 Most Impactful Social Innovators (Global Listing)” by The World CSR Day for Safecity. The Theme for the Congress was “The Future of Profit is ‘Purpose’”.
The 50 Most Impactful Social Innovators (Global Listing) is a tribute to those who are missionaries and passionate about Social Innovators. Those Leaders who have believed that CSR Leadership must contribute to Social change are recognised. The World CSR Day pays a tribute to such leaders who are transformational agents.
Indian Digital Awards
Safecity received the Gold Digital Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for the use of the Internet for Social and Economic Development on February 9th, 2017.
Being a Millennial in India : A discussion
Our founder Elsa Dsilva was one of the panellists for “Being a Millennial in India” at the Ministry Of New organised by #GlobalShapersMumbai on 2nd Feb, 2017.
This discussion started off by talking about Millennials in the corporate world and their unique and entrepreneurial ways of taking up jobs, the constant job hopping and unsubscribing of one to many companies. The discussion ended with an understanding that both the corporates and the Millennials need to have a give and take relationship with each other.
Participating in One Billion Rising
Safecity in conjunction with Hoonar Tekwurks participated in the One Billion Rising Revolution to raise awareness on sexual harassment and exploitation of women.
The workshops included screening of short films based on body image and shaming and the issue of sexual harassment. Through different activities students opened up about their own experiences of body shaming and resolved to be more careful before commenting on someone ever again. The film on sexual harassment definitely urged them to stand up for themselves and others against sexual harassment.
At Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai
With the UNAOC Delegates, Delhi
At Dr. BMN College of Home Science, Mumbai
At Government Law College, Mumbai (21 students)
At Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE), Pune (109 students)
At Care Foundation- Emmanuel Public School, Pune
Workshop at Kehkasha
Kehkasha is an annual event of the Blue Ribbon Movement. This year their theme was #IAmBoldForChange in keeping with the theme for International Women’s Day this year.
Vandita Morarka, our Policy and Legal Officer conducted a workshop at Kehkasha on 11th February, 2017. This workshop was conducted with young girls that was focused on issues of gender discrimination, body shaming, period taboos, sexual harassment and an interlinking of all these issues. The girls were very responsive and self led several sub discussions with their peers. Several of the girls shared personal experiences and were very interactive!
Facebook live with Majlis Legal Centre
On 24th February, Safecity had a live chat on Facebook with Audrey D’mello, the Program Director of Majlis Legal Centre talking about “Fighting the legal battle for women”. Audrey elucidated us on the implications of a Uniform Civil Code, the many cases they have taken up for women who have suffered from domestic abuse and have had no where else to go for help and also their stand on the controversial Triple Talaq. You can watch the entire chat here.
Safecity at the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Forum
On 23rd February, Elsa Dsilva, the Founder and CEO of Safecity, spoke about the work that Safecity does on Information Communication Technologies to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Violence against Women in Public Spaces in the third session on Day 2 as part of the UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Flagship Programme Initiative (FPI)– “Safe, Empowering and Sustainable City Approaches in Action for Women and Girls”
Street Markets Safety Audits
Following reports of harassment at certain Street Markets that came up during our interactions at workshops and feedback from interns and volunteers – Safecity decided to audit three large popular street markets in Mumbai to assess safety in terms of sexual harassment.
We included several measures of safety, assessing for infrastructural needs and also getting reports from those at the markets on whether they have or haven’t been harassed as a Policy Project on assessing safety at streets markets led by our Policy and Legal Officer, Vandita Morarka.
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 Sagar’s story on our blog here.
When we asked Sagar about his experience doing an internship with Safecity, this is what he had to say –
“I decided that I wanted to shift my career into one which had more social impact. As part of this shift, one day I called up Elsa and told her that I wanted to do some work in the field. A few days later Elsa sent me an email and asked me if we could build an app. Around the same time I was already working on Facebook Messenger bots. Since it is a very new exciting platform, I thought of making one for Safecity. It made a lot of sense since people could report directly from their phone and wouldn’t need to download an app..”
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 Volunteer Engagement Officer, Jessica Xalxo, who writes about her experience with Safecity and her journey from being just a volunteer to becoming one and equal to the essence of Safecity here.
“The year was 2015. I was a freshwoman at Sophia College and had joined the SSRI (Students for Social Reform Initiative) club in an overtly enthusiastic bid to leave my mark on the college. Whatever it may have been, this enthusiasm paved the way for me to Safecity. I had only ever heard that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
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 SDG 10, which is, Reducing Inequalities, discussing various aspects of it and how working towards negating the various inequalities in gender, pay, race, culture etc can aid in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. One TweetChat was also conducted as part of One Billion Rising keeping with the theme- Standing in Solidarity against Exploitation of Women.
Check out the storified tweetchats here- The Different Aspects of Gender Inequality, Standing in Solidarity Against Exploitation of Women, Reducing Inequalities Between Gender and the Role of Media in Reducing Inequalities.
- On 8th March- International Women’s Day, Elsa D’Silva will be receiving the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award in Washington DC at the Kennedy Centre.
- On 21st March, Safecity will be hosting a parallel event at the NGO CSW61 Forum in New York on Mainstreaming SDG5 in the New Urban Agenda through Data and Technology at 2:30 PM EST in Hardin Room at the Church Center for the United Nations. Kindly RSVP here- https://goo.gl/s5cJor
- On 16th March, Elsa D’Silva will be conducting a lecture- Safety in the Making at KTH The Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm.
