Director General Charles Li attends the community forum of “Know Your Government” of the “Uridhi” project sponsored by the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) at Chennai Choolaimedu on 21st April 2017.
The International Foundation for Crime Prevention & Victim Care
(PCVC), a Chennai-based non-profit organization, is organizing a 3-day event at the end
of a one-year project supported by the Taipei Economic & Cultural Centre, Chennai, to
address the gender-based issues that communities faced in the aftermath of the 2015
floods in Chennai.
ABOUT URIDHI: Disaster situations such as floods make women uniquely vulnerable to
stress, violence and abuse. In 2016, PCVC launched project Uridhi, to address these
issues in Namchivayapuram West & East, an urban slum in Choolaimedu. The one-year
project proposed to work with 1000 women in one of the worst flood affected
communities, to create safe spaces for women and girls in flood affected Chennai.
The project identified 10 women mobilisers for the community, who were taken
through a period of workshops and focus group discussions to identify specific issues
and to build their capacity and resilience to reach out to the wider community and share
their knowledge, raise awareness and arrive at sustainable, collective actions and
solutions to combat gender-based violence.
With the help of the mobilisers, PCVC has been able to identify 5 key areas of
improvement in the community (sanitation & gender, health & gender, disaster &
gender, safety, freedom & gender and local governance & accountability) and each of
the mobilisers have been able to reach out to 100 other individuals (women, men,
adolescent girls & boys).
3-DAY EVENTS: As part of the events to address these 5 key areas, a sexual harassment
workshop was held with the community yesterday and today, a session on ‘Know Your
Government’ was taken up. The invitees for the session included the Village Head, area
sub-inspector, former area councilor & the doctor from the primary health centre. The
community had an in depth conversation with the representatives to express their issues.
Most of the issues discussed had gender as a central point. Matters of access to water,
health & sanitation, consistently affected women more strongly. As one of the community
members pointed out to the sub inspector of police, “Drugs & alcoholism is rampant in the
community. Although the TASMAC store should open only at a particular time, illegal sale
of alcohol is commonplace. Women bear the brunt of alcoholism in families.”
The community also questioned the lack of active water pumps & sanitation facilities. The
lack of sufficient water pumps & consequently lack of water supply, once again impacts
women since they are responsible for bringing water for their households.
The interactions concluded with a vote of thanks from the women’s group leader,
Saraswathi, who said, “We have discussed several issues here today. But, we should also
discuss these issues in our homes openly. There is no shame in standing up for ourselves.
No one can touch us without our permission and young people should know that they
could approach us freely. We have to work to create that space in our community.”
This session was followed by a workshop on disaster preparedness for the community,
facilitated by Latha, from Bhoomika Trust. Charles Li, Director General, Taipei Economic &
Cultural Centre, Chennai, presented the community with a disaster tool kit.
Over the next couple of days, the community will take up a day long clean up exercise
and facilitate a medical camp for women & girls. The mobilisers will further take this up
as community-led action plan to ensure continued work on the 5 key areas.
Director General Charles Li speaks at the Forum
Director General Charles Li (R2), Dr. Prasanna Gettu, CEO of PCVC(R); ex-counseller (Center); Village head (L2), community inspector (L)
Director General Charles Li (R), Dr. Prasanna Gettu, CEO of PCVC(L)
Director General Charles Li (R), Dr. Prasanna Gettu, CEO of PCVC(R2); and communities mobilizers
Director General Charles Li donates the "Disaster Tool Kit" to the community volunteers.
Chennai Choolaimedu community residents interact at the forum.
Chennai Choolaimedu community residents interact at the forum.
Chennai Choolaimedu community residents at the forum.
Chennai Choolaimedu community residents at the forum.
"Disaster Tool Kit" with ROC (Taiwan) flag.
the forum banner with ROC (Taiwan) flag.
the poster with ROC (Taiwan) flag.
