Safecity Monthly Updates: April 2020

Safecity is working from home and we’re trying to make the best out of this time for everyone. 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.

SafeCircle: A Safe-Space for the Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Domestic violence cases or cases of intimate partner violence have been on the rise lately. In India too we are getting requests for help. In response, we have added Domestic Violence as a new category of reporting. The Safecity crowd map now, also includes additional categories to collate COVID related resources such as food distribution centres, helplines, and mental health counselling services.

We are not stopping at that. We are launching a community support online group called SafeCircle from the 15th of May. This will allow survivors of domestic violence to find a community of support, share strategies, learn to find different ways to deal with the violence and perhaps reach out for help. Please sign up here.

Anti-Street Harassment Week 2020

Anti – Street Harassment week first began in 2011. It was created by an organization called Stop Street Harassment. It started small, but quickly grew as people began to become more aware of this situation. Over 20 countries began to participate in this worldwide fight against injustice. This year, Safecity worked with Stop Street Harassment and Catcalls of NYC. Anti-Street Harassment week started on April 19th and ended on April 25th. It was a success! People from all over the world came together, sharing their experiences in creative works such as poems, artwork or even just simply talking about their experiences.

Global leaders took the opportunity to speak out against street harassment, joining in TweetMeets or live videos. Responses from influential leaders such as Leslee Udwin : Bafta award winning producer and CEO of Think Equal, Beth Yates: British Deputy High commissioner of Mumbai  and Vania Ceccato: a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm explained their thoughts on this topic. Despite being in a pandemic, the global community managed to participate together. This shows that even with obstacles, we can still come together for a greater cause. This is how we put an end to street harassment! Read our blog on the Week to know more about it.

Daily Reflections

Every morning, Elsa Marie D’Silva, founder of Red Dot Foundation starts her day by going live on Facebook and YouTube along with a guest to share what they value, how they are coping, what drives their passions and what they are looking forward to once this crisis is behind us. She has completed more than 40 episodes now with speakers from corporate & aviation, authors, social entrepreneurs, diplomats, Activists, Lawyers and Journalists. 

Joined by some notable names like Jane Borges (Author of Bombay Balchao), Swarnima Bhattacharya (Founder, TheaCare), Eika Banerjee (CEO Future Learning), Nausheen Yousuf (Advocate, Majlis), Arfa Khanum (Journalist, The Wire), Vikas Gora (Deputy Director, South India, Save the Children), Yukiko Koyama (Senior Protection Officer, UNHCR India), Deepali Naair (CMO, IBM) and many more, Elsa will now take it forward on Instagram after finishing 50 episodes. 

“Spent a lovely half hour this morning in a free wheeling chat with ElsaMarie D’Silva on life and times, on her Daily Reflections during COVID19 series.”, says Smita Mankad, Former Managing Director, FabIndia.  

Check out previous episodes of Daily Reflections here.

Feminism in Reel Life

With April’s theme as Sexual Harassment, there was a showcase and emphasis on a combination of both Hollywood and Bollywood in order to discuss and analyse movies from a gender lens with aspects of sexual violence in cinema. The first two weeks included sessions on incredible movies such as Angry Indian Goddesses, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing and Pink. The following two weeks discussed a few thought-provoking movies such as CAIRO 678, Perks Of Being A Wallflower and MOM. The sessions were super interactive with over 40 participants; volunteers, interns, youth leaders and partner members who attended and participated per session. The various informative activities during these sessions brought about a deep insight into the theme.

Our theme for May is Love and Relationships and includes movies like Masaan, Ask the Sexpert and A Suitable Girl. Sign up for the sessions here.

Knowledge Cafe

In the wake of COVID-19 where there is a rapid transition from in-person to online learning, Red Dot Foundation has made a shift from conducting physical training to hosting online sessions through a Knowledge Café. Prevalent & ‘need of the hour topics’ are covered to spread awareness about issues like Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Female Infanticide, as well as to provide a theoretical understanding of Intersectionality in the Indian context.

This initiative is aimed primarily to embrace community resilience by communicating information & knowledge, through the digital platform with a focus on real time engagement (activities such as polls, quizzes, videos etc.) & feedback with the participants.

Emerging Leader

Amana Parveen works as a Social Media Intern with Safecity. She’s currently in her second year of graduation and pursuing Political Science along with a Diploma in Women Development and Empowerment. She aims to change, inspire and impact the lives of many women and the world by helping the gender that has been negated for decades. Read her journey with Safecity here.

Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards 2020

“ElsaMarie was recognized for founding and leading Red Dot Foundation, an organization that is helping make cities safer by documenting incidents of sexual harassment and abuse in public places through crowdsourced data and technology. Her passion and commitment to using technology for good, to help tackle sexual violence, impressed the judges.” – Booking.com

She won the Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards 2020 in the Social Impact Category out of total 800 nominations. We congratulate all the winners.

Building Inclusive Cities

As part of the Leadership Network for Change at Stanford Centre for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, ElsaMarie DSilva, Founder Red Dot Foundation Global and Prathima Manohar, Founder – The Urban Vision have partnered on an online series that discusses urban challenges around COVID-19. 

In this series, Elected Officials, Economists, Police, Development Professionals and Head of “War Rooms” discuss several issues including food security, policing, the migrant crisis, governance and accountability, new forms of social currency to address social change, city-level responses to pandemic measures and more. 

Find new episodes every Wednesday and Friday at 6:00 PM IST / 08:30 AM EST on YouTube.

Be Your Own Superhero

This campaign is to celebrate your story. It’s to celebrate the countless stories that collectively give us hope to #RiseTogether and fight against injustice. If you’re someone who has stood up for a friend who was being harassed, we would love to hear your heroic story too!

#BeYourOwnSuperhero today and share your story of action against harassment with us- bit.ly/BeYourOwnSuperhero

Our Global newsletter

Do subscribe to the Red Dot Foundation Global newsletter if you would like specific news featuring our work across the globe.

Click here to read. Do subscribe if interested.

Girl Fund Campaign

We have been selected by Global Giving to be part of their Girl Fund Campaign. We appreciate every generous donation. Even Rs 500 or $10 will go a long way.

You can use this link to donate- https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/training-10-youth-campus-ambassadors-on-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!