Hyderabad: A city based NGO, Rubaroo conducted the fifth edition of its Human Rights initiative known as, “16 days of activism” culminated with the celebration of Human Rights Day on Friday.
Rubaroo is an incubation center, emphasising youth development , through facilitation of various social action projects, led by the youth. The organisation has modeled its “16 days of Activism” in accordance with the United Nations’ initiative of the same name. This year’s event was held at AV college of Arts and Commerce at Himayathnagar.
Every year since 2016, the event is organised from November 25 to December 10, where youth from Rubaroo’s various fellowship program come together, to share their views on gender based violence in various sectors across the country.
The participants receive three days of training regarding the challenges posed by gender based violence, and try to identify the methods to tackle the issue. Expressing pleasure over the execution of the event, Neha Swain, the co-founder of Rubaroo said, “It is amazing to see the youth coordinating closely with our team members to organise today’s event, they have worked hard for the past two weeks to come up with all these stalls.”
Speaking of the initiative, Anuja K Menon, an associate coordinator, “16 Days of Activism is based on the Human Rights initiative of the UN Women.” She further mentioned that the theme for this year was “Orange the World”.
When asked the reason for choosing this theme, Menon explained, “The colour orange symbolises a brighter future, which is free of violence. ” She further said, “It also serves as a means of demonstrating solidarity in eliminating all forms of violence.”
When asked regarding the impact of the event on the youth, Amar, another associate coordinator said, “We have receive a positive feedback from the youngsters who have attended the event over the years. ” He went onto say that, over 40 youth have enrolled in various fellowships offered by the NGO after attending the event in the last three years.
Speaking of the impact of the 16 Days of activism intiative, Sirisha a participant of the program said, “I feel a major change in myself after the being part of the initiative, it has given me the confidence to speak on issues which are seldom touched upon in households.”
Another participant who did not wished to be named said “The event and the initiative have played a major role in sensitizing youth regarding gender and the challenges faced by people solely because of their gender.” She further stated that most people have limited knowledge regarding types of gender. She added that as of now there 216 identified genders in the world.
Sharing their experience regarding the event, a few visitors mentioned that it is the first time they were attending an event that provided a blend of Human Rights and gender based violence. Speaking of the event, Azhar Shaheen a former fellow at Rubaroo said, “The organisation has been conducting the event consistently, it is one of the major platforms which taps into the youth of the city, sensitizing them about various challenges and aspect of Human Rights.”
Speaking of the funding for the two week long program and the finale event, Rishi Jeevan, a coordinator from Rubaroo said, “Although you see Rubaroo as the face of the event, it is a collaborative effort of NGOs such as Untied Way of Hyderabad, Community, the Youth Collective, Pravah Delhi, Sales Force, Microsoft, and Genpact.”