Safecity Monthly Updates : December 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.

WCRC -The Pride of India – Community Hero Award

Elsa D’Silva, Safecity’s Founder and CEO, received the Community Hero Award at WCRC Leaders (World Consulting & Research Corporation Media Initiative) The Pride of India Award Ceremony.

‘Pride of India’ is a series that honours men and women, who either have left a permanent mark or are in the process of creating a lasting impression in the fields of sports, business, entertainment, social change, literature and the arts. It is India’s first and only general interest awards saluting highest level of achievement that would cover different cities of India to reward the extraordinary work and accomplishments of individuals from different genres.

We did a series of posters which we released on social media on “Know Your Rights and Laws” and “Bystander Intervention”. This was to educate people on the legislation, police procedures, rights of a woman at the police station, etc.

                                                  

 We did Facebook Live sessions with various NGOs working on different aspects of gender based violence from child sexual abuse to Domestic Violence to health to men against violence against women and research. Each of these had about 3000 views. You can read more about it here.

Conducted workshops in schools, colleges and communities in Mumbai and Delhi for 200 teaching and non teaching staff + 500 mothers + 80 youth + 130 children.

Awareness campaign with staff 12 restaurants and cafes around North Campus of Delhi University educating their staff on sexual violence, the legislation, importance of bystander intervention and importance of creating safe zones.

With One Billion Rising we jointly hosted Student Rising with over 100 students from North and South Campuses of Delhi University and the focus was on safer access to public spaces for women workers.

 

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 Erika’s story on our blog here.

When we asked Erika about her experience volunteering with Safecity, this is what she had to say –

“Safecity’s platform is unique and highlights the transformative nature of the intersection between physical and online environments as a way to make our cities more accessible to all members of the community. I am inspired by the inroads the team has made by fostering connections between the government, community leaders, law enforcement and, via the data they’ve helped aggregate and analyse the lived experiences of ordinary people. I find these interactions between key stakeholders fascinating and have been learning how effective community campaigns can be organised to promote strong working relationships between these interest groups.”

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 Communications Officer, Renita Siqueira, who writes about her experience with Safecity since she joined and how every day, every blog, every activity, every workshop has been a continual learning process for her here.

“My work has given me the opportunity to meet people from communities in Mumbai, to see the harsh realities of life that they face every day, realities that I was once oblivious to. Through the numerous community interventions Safecity facilitates, I learned that the power of actively asserting your rights to be safe as a citizen goes hand-in-hand with doing your duty as a citizen to make your own area safer.”

SDG 5- Gender Equality

For the entire month of December, Safecity made a case about the need to ensure gender equality  in all aspects of life. We discussed whether women receive equal treatment and status in the workplace, whether women and girls have an equal freedom of expression both in the online as well as offline world and the many repercussion they have to face due to unsafe public spaces.  Through numerous Tweetchats, expert curators and blogs, our focus was on UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 – ‘Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls Everywhere’.

Check out our comprehensive blog on all the discussions we conducted this month on SDG 5 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 five TweetChats beginning with the theme of the 16 days of Activism- Making Education Safer. This was followed by a Tweetchat by our interns about the legalisation of prostitution and its effects. The topic discussed during the remainder of the month was SDG5- Gender Equality and its various aspects.

Check out the storified tweetchats here- Making Education Safer, The Link between Legalised Prostitution and Human Trafficking, Gender and Public Spaces, Freedom of Expression vis-a-vis Gender Equality and Gender and Work.

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! Wish you a safe, happy and prosperous New Year!