S-City app: Making Vietnam safer for women and girls

(VNF) - In front of the Ly Thai To statue near Hoan Kiem lake, more than 600 people joined a music event to celebrate the launching of the smart phone application “S-City ActionAid”, allows users to report and assessing safety in the city on June 27^th.

It is a joint event organized by ActionAid Vietnam (AAV), Gender Equality Department under the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), Vietnam National Volunteer Centre (VVC).

The launching ceremony was held with the participation of Adriano Campolina Christopher, ActionAid International (AAI) Chief Executive; Pham Ngoc Tien, Director General of the Gender Equality Department; Nguyen Thi Thu Van, permanent Deputy Chairwoman of the Vietnam Youth Federation's Central Committee; Hoang Phuong Thao, AAV Country Director as well as AAI staff came from different country programmes including Cambodia, Australia, Nigeria, Denmark, Kenya, Myanmar and South Africa.

Launching ceremony with the participantion of Adriano Campolina Christopher, AAI Chief Executive; Pham Ngoc Tien, Director General of the Gender Equality Department; Nguyen Thi Thu Van, permanent Deputy Chairwoman of the Vietnam Youth Federation's Central Committee; Hoang Phuong Thao, AAV Country Director, singers Khac Hieu and Hong Ngoc.

The space in Sword Lake area are hot than ever sinking in exciting music and familiar purple color of the Campaign “My safe city – My love city”.

Participants also have had chances to experienced many emotions from being anxious and worried about the reality of unsafe public places to desiring for a better living environment, and above all, they were inspired to commit and take action for a safe city as a slogan of the event: “I care, I act”.

According to a research by AAV, 87 per cent women and girls had experienced sexual harassment in public places such as streets, parks, buses and public toilets; 66 per cent women and girls keep silent instead of reporting with police or warning others when violence or harassment occur in public place and only 35 per cent men did something proactive about harassment they witnessed.

This app S-City (Safe City in full) has been created by ActionAid to easily enable citizens or visitor to map dangers in their cities, notify risky public areas, inform others and local authorities to ensure a safer and more inclusive space for all, and especially women and girls.

It is designed for every citizen or visitor who cares about the cities and wants to stop violence against women and girls in public spaces.

The app offers many functions including mapping safe routes, reporting unsafe places, making an emergency call, evaluating public services, and reporting incidents of sexual assault or harassment.

S-City (Safe City in full), is a social network for assessing the quality of public services and more importantly notifying risky public areas in the cities, which impact on the safety of women and girls.

Using this app, you are able to provide his/her comments on the location that basing on practical exposure. Once being commented, the location will be scored/ranked accordinglly with 3 relevant categories including “Quality”, “Service” and “Harassment”. When you are done, click “post” and the report will be uploaded on system, appeared on map and to be shared with others automatically.

S-City can be freely downloaded from App Store (for iOS devices), CH Play (for Android devices) and Windows Store (for Window devices) with the term “S-City ActionAid”.

Detail information about the application can be found at website: http://safecity.vn/

“With advanced technology, hopefully this S-City ActionAid application will be welcomed and receive positive feedback from its users. Women can protect themselves and contribute to evaluating the quality of public services so as to improve their living environment. This is one of the safe city criteria that the Gender Equality Department is developing and piloting in 2020”, said Pham Ngoc Tien, the Director General of MoLISA’s Gender Equality Department.

The event is a part of a succession of the campaign “Safe cities” co-funded by the Irish Aid and ActionAid. The campaign has been implemented in 5 big cities of Vietnam including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Uong Bi, Ho Chi Minh and Tra Vinh since 2014. It is planned that by 2017, there will be a minimum of 10,000 people participating in various activities of the campaign in those 5 cities and at least 1 of them will be recognized as a safe city.

ActionAid is an international humanitarian organisation, working with over 15 million people in 45 countries for a world free from poverty and injustice./.

Phuong Nguyen