It's a great success!

Today on the February 7th, one hundred and fifty youth volunteers successfully initiated a campaign called WHISTLE FOR HELP.. The campaign was organized by very enthusiastic fifteen committee members after they heard over one hundred stories from women and girls who were the victims for once or more on the busses and most of them stayed silent during the harassment. The objective of the campaign was to fight against the sexual harassment against women on the bus, which is a big common issue in big cities and small towns. The youth volunteers who were wearing campaign T-shirts gathered at crowded bus stops in Yangon and passed the whistles and leaflets to commuters, men and women. On the back of the T-shirts the message ‘ STOP sexual harassment against women on the bus !‘ was printed and the campaign slogan ‘WHISTLE FOR HELP’ was designed on the front of the T-shirts. The leaflet suggests women to the whistle if someone commits sexual harassment on the bus and also suggests other people to help the woman when she blows the whistle. Some volunteers took the buses and passed the whistles and the leaflets to the passengers on the ride .

This very fist campaign could attract people's interest so much that many people asked the campaign for contact for next campaigns and to extend the campaigns in other places. Some bus drivers and fare collectors happily helped the campaign by separating the whistle strings from the knots. A man who visited to Yangon asked a whistle and a leaflet and said he wanted to do the same campaign in his native town. Many people told that this kind of campaign is highly recommended in various places to fight the harassment. Five foreign tourists also asked five whistles after they knew about the campaign.

NI NI AYE
VOF 2010