Hollaback! Belfast is a new group in Belfast, Northern Ireland and they jump-started their chapter during International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

Chapter director Helen shares what they did (view their photo album):

“As chalk walking isn’t legal in Belfast City Centre, we came up with an alternative. We made our own chalk boards using cardboard and chalkboard paint and made portable-chalkboards.

The Student Union at Queen’s University, Belfast were kind enough to let us use their grounds to chalk and discuss with passers by the idea behind Anti Street-Harassment week.

One in particular passerby argued that we were making the place ugly with our slogans. His argument was that as a tax payer, he had a bigger say in what happened at the publicly funded Student Union. I informed him that I too was a tax payer, as well as a alum of QUB and so had also paid for the SU with my university fees. This seemed to placate him enough to allow me to be there, and while he disagreed with my method, after a long discussion, he agreed with our message.

Other local cafes and business’ around the city allowed us to take over their chalk boards and discuss street harassment with customers and passersby. Nearly everyone we spoke with recognized that street harassment is a problem, but had no idea how to solve it.

It was a really successful day as it gave us a lot of ideas on how to tackle street harassment in Belfast, and raised some awareness on the virality of the problem.”

Several groups in Germany participated in International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

They were organized primarily by ProChange, who told me, “We set up a FaceBook page with the title “Stop street harassment Germany.” The intention was to make the street harassment week more public in Germany, to raise awareness, to call for action and networking. We are happy that due to this many German cities got involved this year: Dortmund, Hagen, Catrop- Rauxel, Darmstadt, Berlin and Dresden.”

Darmstadt (Gender Equality Germany): “We were active everywhere in Darmstadt distributing our leaflets, starting conversations and we enjoyed it lots! Hopefully more people want to take part in our next actions- we are open for everyone!”

Hussein Elshafei of Harassmap in Egypt shared what his organization did for International Anti-Street Harassment Week:

“Harassmap is an initiative with the mission to end the social acceptability of sexual harassment in Egypt.

In pursuit of that mission. 2 volunteer groups were mobilized on the 5th and the 6th of April, in Giza and Alexandria respectively. They targeted bystanders on the streets, and conducted successful campaigns to turn their neighborhoods into safe areas. Safe areas are not necessarily free of sexual harassment. However, a safe area guarantees that, if harassment happens, there will be social consequences.

The Giza team conducted its outreach campaign at a bus stop. Reactions varied from aggression to complete understanding and changing perceptions. A graffiti message that says, “Be a man; protect her from harassment instead of harassing her” and another that says, “No to harassment,” were made during the campaign.

The Alexandria team conducted its campaign around Alexandria’s biggest shopping mall. A sexist graffiti that promotes violent harassment was erased by the volunteers and they wrote ‘Love’ instead.”

Thank you for making International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013 bigger than ever!

This Week Mattered!

This was an incredible week of awareness, as a visit to the photo album and the media page or #EndSHWeek or #EndSH threads on twitter will attest. Around 150 groups from more than 20 countries and 6 continents participated.

It was amazing to see:

* UN Women tweet about the week.
* Great articles about the week/issue on BuzzFeed and the Washington Post.
* UpWorthy post about Hollaback Philly’s new SEPTA ad to their millions of followers.
* The Harry Potter Alliance speak out against street harassment
* A city council woman in New York City lead a rally.
* People around the world, from Australia and Zimbabwe, to Yemen and Peru, to Belgium and Bangladesh, take to the streets to bring attention to this issue and engage their community to discuss what needs to change to stop street harassment.

Since launching Stop Street Harassment five years ago, there has been a significant shift in the number of people who acknowledge street harassment as a legitimate problem and are willing to do something about it. Awareness campaigns like International Anti-Street Harassment Week contribute to that continuing shift. Your voice matters, you’re making a difference.

Thank YOU!

In reviewing all that took place and the tens of thousands of people who were impacted by the messages, I am filled with gratitude and awe.

This week would not be possible without many volunteers, helpers, leaders, and people who care about making public places safer for everyone!

* Thanks to the approximately 150 groups, organizations and campuses that took some form of action to bring attention to this social problem that is too often invisible or dismissed as being no big deal. This includes thank you’s to the groups that led the five very successful tweet chats: Hollaback Bmore, Fem2pt0, Men Stopping Violence, FAAN Mail, Women’s Media Center, Breakthrough, Blank Noise, and Everyday Sexism.

* Thank you, Nuala Cabral (co-founder of FAAN Mail and a SSH board member) for being a key leader in planning and carrying out the week.

* Thank you, Laura Palumbo at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center who, when I met with her and her colleagues last summer, welcomed the idea of having the week fall during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and helped advertise the week to their networks.

* Thank you, SSH social media volunteers and SSH correspondents for your help spreading the word about the week and participating in it.

* Thank you, translation volunteers, media relations volunteer Katie Broendel, and graphic designer Alli VanKanegan who created great fliers for the week.

* Thank you, Zerlina Maxwell for writing a compelling article for Ebony Magazine about the connection between street harassment and sexual violence, facilitating my guest blog post on Feministing.com, and taking to Twitter a few times to generate lots conversations about street harassment among your many followers. (Note: She was nearly the only person who responded to the more than 100 pitches I sent out about the week.)

* Thank you to my partner Mark for not minding too much that I stayed glued to my computer or phone nearly every moment I was at home last week and thank you to my parents for participating and also for their encouragement throughout the week.

There were so many more tremendous individuals and groups who used their platforms/networks to spread the word and help organize events and online actions. Thank you!

Next Steps?

1. If you haven’t already, report back on what you did for the week.

2. There are two weeks left of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Find ideas for what you can do.

3. There will continue to be many outreach and anti-harassment initiatives led by local groups and other international organizations, so participate in their efforts!

4. For Stop Street Harassment, our next big focus will be continuing to fund-raise to be able to conduct the first large-scale national study on street harassment in the United States and doing the prep work to be able to launch a Know Your Rights Toolkit and helpline.

Please donate to help us with our work. You can also sign up for the monthly e-newsletter.

Thank You Again,

Holly Kearl, Founder of Stop Street Harassment & International Anti-Street Harassment Week