Safecity Monthly Updates : September 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.
UN Solutions Summit 2016
The purpose of the Solutions Summit is to lift up exceptional innovators – technologists, engineers, scientists, and others who are developing solutions that address one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to catalyze a grassroots effort, where communities scout and convene resources around solution-makers. Safecity was selected to present at the United Nations #SolutionsSummit #UNGA. It was an honour to be recognised as one of the top 10 global innovations solving some of the world’s most pressing problems.
On 21 Sep in New York, our Founder, Elsa D’Silva presented Safecity’s innovative solution of using technology as a platform to collate data as well as review safe and unsafe places followed by customised interventions at ground level to make them safer.
Women Transforming India Award from Niti Aayog
On International Women’s Day 2016, NITI Aayog, in partnership with MyGov and the United Nations in India, launched the first-ever ‘Women Transforming India’, an online contest to crowdsource stories of women making a difference, with the aim to celebrate the indomitable spirit of women working tirelessly to empower communities and transform India. The campaign is also consistent with the government’s renewed commitment to advance gender equality.
Our Founder, Elsa D’Silva was one of the Runner-ups for Women Transforming India. Ashwini Syed, our Training Manager, received the award from Niti Ayog on behalf of her and Safecity and spoke of the incredible work Safecity has been doing in using technology to make spaces safer for women. As one of the winners, Elsa represented #Safecity at the launch of IIT Delhi’s Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program with the aim to scale our work across India – urban and rural.
MySafecity- Sapna Bhavnani
Safecity held its fourth #MySafecity chat in Twitter’s #BlueRoom with the multi-faceted Sapna Moti Bhavnani who spoke about her upcoming book and documentary and important life experiences that have helped shape her as she is today. She spoke about her experiences in Berlin, the importance of one’s self, the profound impact of sharing her story through the drama ‘Nirbhaya’. Breaking her silence has meant a lot to her and she is working hard to help others who have been victims of violence and abuse in any form and wishes to create a Healing Club. You can watch our live chat here.
Crowdsourcing week
Initiated by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Crowdsourcing Week, this summit was held to promote organizations and innovators looking to embed the power of the crowd in their products and services, connect the dots in the global crowd-powered marketplace. The Summit was to serve as a catalyst to help organisations take a holistic look at their operations, engage their stakeholders and create long-term value. Our COO and Director, Supreet K Singh, represented Safecity at the Summit and was a part of the panel on the discussion, “Is Crowdsourcing an Answer to Social Development?” She spoke about the work Safecity does of crowdsourcing stories of sexual harassment in public spaces and collating the data to submit monthly trends to the police in order to ensure responsive action and make places safer.
Safecity at the Tech Fair at Build Peace, Zurich
The Fair provided individuals and organisations the opportunity to showcase tools that have been or could be applied to the peacebuilding field. Safecity’s Founder, Elsa D’Silva showcased the work that Safecity does at the Tech Fair held on the second day of Build Peace at Zurich.
Safecity at Zumba Fitness Party with Sucheta Pal & Justallheart
Safecity partnered with Sucheta Pal’s initiative Justallheart- a Zumba Fitness Party on 11th September at Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla. We spoke about the importance of mapping safe and unsafe spaces in and around Mumbai, reporting it to the police or on our website and sending this data to the police in order to make the hotspots that emerged safer. Ashwini Syed, our Training and HR Manager, spoke about the work Safecity has been doing in different parts of India and the importance of reporting. Since we’ve been discussing #SDG3- Good health and well-being this month, Safecity’s members, Campus Ambassadors and their teams all got their groove on to work towards a healthier lifestyle.
Character Day
Character Day is an annual day where people from around the world screen films on the science of character development from different perspectives. Safecity joined in this third annual celebration of character development on September 22, 2016 and was a part of this online global conversation around character and the importance of developing character strengths. We celebrated Character Day in Mumbai and Delhi with about 45 participants, majorly youth. Screening of films around character, gender roles, taboos, societal issues were followed by animated and intense discussions among the participants. The discussions brought out myriad perspectives, different personalities, each one’s solutions to existing problems and a unanimous need to have open dialogue leading to mutual understanding, collaborations and unified efforts towards making a difference. Read more about it here.
Social Cause Partner at KJ Somaiya
Safecity partnered with KJ Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology at their college fest- “Renaissance- The Fest’ on 22nd and 23rd September 2016 as their Social Cause Partner. We asked students to mark unsafe spaces on the map of Mumbai as well as created awareness about the laws against sexual harassment and encouraged people to report.
Social Media Session for NGOs co-hosted by Safecity, the US Consulate & Twitter
Safecity conducted a Social Media Session for NGOs co-hosted by the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai and Twitter India on 27th September 2016. We had a great turnover of 36 participants from various NGOs over Mumbai all working for different causes like human rights, gender, against sexual violence, environment, sports, creating friendships across borders but all with a common goal of learning to harness the power of social media to further their cause.
Through participatory facilitation, many of them felt more at ease using social media and learnt how to use each forum to their advantage to benefit their cause. Excited with their new knowledge and eager to keep trying their hand at social media, the session was extremely fruitful with talks of collaborations both online and offline to work together and help each other out.
International Women’s Leadership Forum
The International Women’s Forum builds better global leadership across careers, continents and cultures by connecting the world’s most pre-eminent women of significant and diverse achievement. Our Founder, Elsa D’Silva, was one of the speakers at the Chicago Conference on the 30th of September.
Deciphering Data
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 Aarushee’s story on our blog here.
When we asked Aarushee her experience being an Ambassador for Safecity, this is what she had to say –
“My first month of working as a Campus Ambassador for Safecity has been full of excitement and thrill! This opportunity immensely helped me in untwining my deepest windings. In the span of these thirty days, I have seen myself evolving into a more organised, disciplined multi-tasker. In addition to this, I have developed logical and creative ways of designing the plans for different campaigns and activities. Working for a cause which is so close to my heart is the best part. Through this programme, I wish to raise maximum awareness about sexual harassment and break the silence that surrounds it.”
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 Mubaraka Motiwala, who heads Safecity’s Campus Ambassador Programme and is the youngest member in the team here.
“Since I joined Safecity, I have been given the chance and freedom to explore and challenge multiple obstacles leading to self-growth. Safecity is making everyday changes in each individual’s life, giving a mixture of valuable and enjoyable experiences. Like a kaleidoscope full of colors, Safecity builds up structures and meaning for the youth to be aware and wake up from the ignorant daydream to actually face the harsh realities of life and act towards implementing justice. I knew Safecity was my Abode to aspire and inspire. Safecity to me is best described in these three words. ‘Veni Vidi Amavi’ (I came. I saw. I loved)”
SDG 3- Good Health and Well-Being For All– A Gendered Perspective
For the entire month of September, Safecity made a case about the need to ensure good health and well-being for all, especially for women and girl sin every aspect. We discussed physical health, mental health, reproductive health, availability of medical facilities and the importance of educating women to empower them to take charge of their own lives and bodies. Through numerous Tweetchats, expert curators and blogs, our focus was on UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 – ‘Good Health and Well-Being for All’.
Check out our comprehensive blog on all the discussions we conducted this month on SDG 3 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 three TweetChats on the importance of creating a healthier lifestyle for women in terms of increasing their availability to facilities, educating them and ensuring better mental, physical and reproductive health. The focus was on SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being and different aspects related to it and the safety of women.Safecity also hosted a TweetChat for @WomenSeriously at the Dublin Launch of the Peace Tables live where we spoke about the need for gender inclusion at decision-making spaces. Finally, we had a chat about the prevalence of workplace harassment and the urgent need to bring into effect safety measures for all.
Check out the storified tweetchats here- mental health, gender inclusion at the peace tables, reproductive mental health, importance of SDG 3 for the empowerment of adolescent girls and workplace harassment and safety.
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!
