Egyptian harassment website wins UNDP Youth Award

CAIRO: Harassmap, a website providing a map for harassment hotspots in Egypt, received the World Summit Youth Award for the ‘Power 2 Women’ category.

“We did apply for the WSYA global contest, but we never actually thought we could win,” Engy Ghozlan, cofounder of Harassmap, told Daily News Egypt.

Exactly a year ago, Harassmap was launched providing a constantly-updated map of Egypt on its webpage, with red circles representing harassment hotspots. Women are urged to report harassment incidents through the website, on Twitter or by sending an SMS to 0169870900.

Moreover, website visitors can receive alerts about harassment incidents within their districts.

Ghozlan summarized the main objectives of the project in two points.

“First, we wish to break the taboo of harassment and have more girls ready to report such incidents in order to try and shrink this phenomenon,” she said.

Aside from helping the harassed report their harassment incidents, they are also referred to “New Woman Foundation NGO” – an NGO concerned with raising awareness about women’s rights and also an affiliate of the Harassmap project – for psychological and health treatment, when necessary.

The second goal is what Ghozlan expresses as “community outreach.”

Harassmap works equally hard on trying to engage volunteers to help spread the word and encourage people in the street to try and prevent any harassment incidents happening around them.

The flow of volunteers has noticeably increased after the January 25 Revolution, according to Ghozlan. She added that during the 18-day uprising and before the ouster of Mubarak, the website rarely received any harassment reports.

Ghozlan also said that average number of incidents reported has not changed after Jan. 25.

“It’s very difficult to pinpoint exact trouble spots, since harassment is more or less widespread within the country,” Ghozlan stated, “Yet, from the map, it could be calculated that the highest number of reports are received from Nasr City, Mohandiseen and Downtown.”

The World Summit Youth Award is an annual award, working to enhance the UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals by awarding successful creators of development-enhancing digital contents worldwide.

Other winners from Egypt include Kherna, a website aimed at connecting humanitarian efforts in Egypt, the Girls Only Radion Station, as well as Zabatak, the anti-crime, anti-corruption initiative.

via www.thedailynewsegypt.com

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