I am thrilled to see our Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program grow so much this year. Last year, for the pilot we received 5 applications and took on 3 sites. This year, we received 15 really great applications from all over the world. Thanks to donations from our supporters, we have been able to accept six of them! They are in six countries and four continents. GLOBAL!
Through December 15, we will hold weekly check-ins, offer advice, materials and a small monetary stipend for the projects they proposed. Each team will write at least two blog posts about their projects (mid-way and at the conclusion) so you all will have a chance to hear from them directly.
These are the mentees and their projects!
1. Schools of Equality in Chennai, India, will create toolkits, in both English and Tamil, to educate and raise awareness about street harassment among teens in schools. The toolkit will also contain resources for schools to conduct their own campaigns around ending street harassment along with ways to brainstorm culturally appropriate responses to street harassment.
2. In Kenya, the Teen Watch Centre will address the rampant problem of harassment on their local ferry system, which 5,000 people ride each day, through a five day awareness campaign on the boarding ramps and a sticker and poster campaign.
3. Women LEAD Nepal will recruit 10 volunteers in Kathmandu and train them to lead theater forums on street harassment. Then the volunteers will go into schools, universities and public spaces to perform the theater and a workshop to allow people to learn about the topic and have a safe space to discuss it.
4. In Managua, Nicaragua, the new group Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua (OCAC NIC) will conduct surveys about street harassment at six of the busiest buses stations. They hope to survey at least 2,000 people and have volunteers ready to analyze the data. Then they will do outreach to media outlets to publicize the findings and bring more attention to the issue.
5. In Nis, Serbia, the informal youth group Generation Y will conduct a street harassment survey among high school and college students. Then, they will use the information they collect to design informational flyers about street harassment and they will do flyering and outreach at places found to be high-risk for harassment based on the survey results.
6. In Kansas City, MO, USA, the BikeWalkKC team will work to pass a cyclist anti-harassment ordinance and hold workshops on street harassment and bicycling.
