Safecity Monthly Updates : July 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 2019 – Seeking Applications

The Youth Design Innovation Challenge, a social incubator, is a derivative of the Urban Thinkers Campus seeking to involve future leaders of the city – the youth of Mumbai, to play a part in solving gender equality issues due to rapid urbanization. The theme this year is Safe Public Spaces. For enquiries, please send an email to info@reddotfoundation.org.

Age group: 17-25 years
Share ideas here: http://bit.ly/YouthDesignChallenge
Last Day: 7th August 2019

More details are available here.

High Level Political Forum

Gillian Dsouza Nazareth , our Director of Global Partnerships, represented Safecity through the NGO Major Group at the 2019 UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF 2019) with the aim of bringing #GenderOnTheAgenda.

Learning Laws through Cartoons

Safecity hosted the Laws Through Cartoons workshop at ISDI Mumbai on 6th July. The aim was to create more awareness about the law and legislation in India in an interactive, creative and fun way. We collaborated with Nappinai & Co., Advocates, who explained the law, and ISDI (Indian School of Design and Innovation) Mumbai, who taught the participants to illustrate. This workshop was supported by the Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai and was attended by 20 participants. You can read more about it here.

Creating a Resilient and Inclusive Democracy in India – a Public lecture at the National Endowment for Democracy

On 10th July, our Founder, Elsa Marie D’Silva gave a public lecture at the National Endowment for Democracy, USA on the linkage between strong democratic processes and the participation of women. She discussed how women are vulnerable to violence from birth to death and often excluded from full participation in society and the economy. She shared her experiences in dealing with sexual violence prevention through the Safecity app and engagement of the local communities and institutions through sharing trends in the data. She also talked about how storytelling can help give women a voice, build solidarity to break the silence surrounding sexual violence, and organize themselves to take action.

You can watch the video here

The Conversation – BBC World Service

Our Founder Elsa Dsilva was part of The Conversation with BBC World Service sharing stories on street harassment. “The idea is to give you a space to share and document your experience and work together to find solutions based on trends that are hyper-local,” she said.

This conversation was broadcast on BBC World Service English radio on 15 July. You can listen to it here- https://bbc.in/2xCkpCs

Finding Tech Solutions to fight Sexual Violence with Omdena through an AI Challenge

Safecity is partnering with Omdena to build a solution for creating more awareness to prevent violent acts, using satellite imagery to identify risk areas. Applications are now open for this IMPACT #AI Challenge.

Apply here  https://omdena.com/harassment/

Our first Global newsletter

We not only have Red Dot Foundation, but also have RDF- Global and our first newsletter for our international audience is just out! We will be featuring our work across the world in these newsletters.

Click here to read. Do subscribe if interested.

Updates from Patna

Naina Jha conducted an awareness workshop on ‘Puberty’ for the students of G. D. Secondary Boys School in collaboration with Kahanighar on the 27th of July. There were 120 boys.  Though they were initially hesitant to talk about puberty and bodily changes with a little encouragement they slowly joined in the discussion. 

Updates from Mumbai

Safecity conducted an workshop on ‘Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Harassment’ at LS Raheja College of Architecture, Mumbai on 25th and 26th July 2019. The workshop was attended by 27 students on the first day and 37 students on the second day. The students were really interested to learn more about sexual harassment when they realized that it’s so rampant around them. The workshop ended with light chatter and a group picture.

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 Yashorma Sandal’s story on our blog here.

When we asked about her experience doing an internship with Safecity, this is what Yashorma had to say –

“Safecity, in my opinion, did not just remain an organisation which offered me an internship. It became an experience for me; an amazing journey in which I learnt something new everyday. Safecity helped me grow not only as an individual but as a responsible feminist. Safecity made me feel empowered and liberated. Thank you, Safecity! Each small step counts and together we can bring the change.”

We have several opportunities for you to volunteer and take action. Do check our website.

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

Girl Fund Campaign

We have been selected by Global Giving to be part of their Girl Fund Campaign. We appreciate every generous donation. Even $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/