Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, marking the launch of the UN Women-managed UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign (Nov 25 - Dec 10).
Over the past year, Turn.io has partnered with three organisations - Ladysmith Collective, Red Dot Foundation and Basic Rights Watch - to create WhatsApp-based chat services that work to help eliminate violence against women. All three organisations were part of June’s Chat for Impact Summit powered by WhatsApp, that aimed to support and accelerate the work of NGOs by providing vulnerable communities with easy and secure access to vital information and support via WhatsApp, including organisations working to prevent Gender Based violence.
In collaboration with Turn.io, Ladysmith Collective leveraged WhatsApp to build a platform to connect vulnerable women to the services they need while also generating actionable data about GBV at the Venezuelan-Colombian border.
The Red Dot Foundation’s India-based Safecity platform was built with Turn.io’s collaboration to empower individuals, communities, police and city government to create safer public and private spaces. Its technology stack collects and analyses crowdsourced, anonymous reports of sexual violence, identifying patterns and key insights – in short, data that helps create safer spaces.
Basic Rights Watch, using Turn.io, created the Sexual Assault Support Assistant that aims to increase counselling and awareness about Sexual Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria and also connects survivors to appropriate authorities that provide sexual assault support services.
The role of these Chat-based initiatives is crucial in a world in which nearly 1 in 3 women have been abused in their lifetime. A new report from UN Women, based on data from 13 countries since the pandemic, shows that 2 in 3 women reported that they or a woman they know experienced some form of violence and are more likely to face food insecurity. Only 1 in 10 women said that victims would go to the police for help.
The United Nations marks 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence from today until10 December 2021, under the global theme set by the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign: “Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!”
Join the “Orange the world: End violence against women now!"
More About “Orange the World: END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN NOW!”
This year’s global campaign theme “Orange the World: END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN NOW!” will mobilize all UNITE networks, civil society and women’s rights organizations, the UN system, the
Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, government partners, schools, universities, private
sector, sports clubs and associations and individuals to:
• Advocate for inclusive, comprehensive and long-term strategies, programmes and
resources to prevent and eliminate VAWG in public and private spaces prioritizing the
most marginalized women and girls.
• Amplify the success stories demonstrating that VAWG is preventable by showcasing
effective strategies and interventions to inspire all actors to scale up what works.
• Promote the leadership of women and girls in their diversity and their meaningful
participation in policy making and decision making from global to local levels.
https://www.spotlightinitiative.org.
• Engage Generation Equality Forum commitment makers in your country or region to
collaborate in the implementation of bold new commitments and to inspire further
action to deliver progress on the Gender-Based Violence Action Coalition Blueprint.
