SSH just launched a brand new Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program to advice/guide and provide a small amount of money to groups or individuals who want help with an anti-street harassment initiative in their community.
I’m excited to announce our three pilot sites for the program!!
Over the next three months we’ll work with activists in Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Chicago, USA, as they undertake projects they’ve designed to address street harassment in their communities.
Here’s an overview of each of their projects and you can look for periodic updates on the blog about their work!
1. “Training of Trainers: Raising Awareness Campaign about Street Harassment in High Schools in Kabul,” Kabul, Afghanistan
This project is based on a separately funded three-part workshop on street harassment. The SSH Mentoring Program funds and direction will go toward helping them develop an additional component to “train the trainers” who will conduct similar workshops. The interested, prospective trainees will attend pilot sessions of the three workshops and will help to develop printed materials, identify weaknesses and provide feedback.
Workshop #1 includes reading women’s narratives about street harassment so they can perceive sexual harassment from the perspective of the victims.
Workshop #2 includes short documentaries about street harassment and students will work in groups to discuss the documentaries and brainstorm some practical solutions to stop street harassment.
Workshop #3 will be activity-based with students making posters, singing a song, or performing a play with the topic of campaign against street harassment in their school. Then, students will be asked to tell their ideas and feedback about the whole campaign.
2. “Understanding the Responding to Street Harassment Safely,” Buea, Southwest Region, Cameroon
This project will have two phases. First, there will be two to three informal focus group discussion with young people around the city. Out of the focus groups, the project leaders will create educational posters and stickers containing messages condemning sexual harassment and will paste them on walls and strategic sites in the city to raise public awareness.
The second phase will be a five hours training seminar with 40 young women, girls and men from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Participants will be asked to share personal stories of harassment and solutions they sought. Participants will learn about literary works on harassment, how to differentiate street harassment from compliments,and they will engage in role playing to explore the issue and its solutions.
3. “End Street Harassment Campaign,” Chicago, IL, USA
Community members in Chicago will create street harassment scenarios for three, light-hearted, satirical films.
* One film reverses the usual roles and portrays females as the catcallers and a male as the one being harassed.
* The second film features a women asking the catcaller questions from the catcaller questionnaire.
* The last film has a street harasser getting escalating warnings. For the first offense of street harassment one is sprayed with a spray bottle (similar to spraying your cat with a spray bottle when they try to steal your food), the second offense is to be sprayed with a small squirt gun, and the third offense is to be squirted with a super soaker.
The goal of the films is to start conversations about street harassment and show it is not a compliment. The films will be available online and there will be a screening in Chicago in September.
