Safer Cities

CBRE’s European Charity Bike Ride is delighted to be supporting Plan International, to bring Safer Cities to Nairobi, Kenya.
Plan International’s Safer Cities programme aims to make cities safer for girls and women, and transform them into places of inclusion, tolerance and opportunity for everyone. The programme is already successfully running in Cairo, Kampala, Hanoi, Lima and Delhi and, with the support of CBRE, the programme is now operating in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since January 2017, CBRE and Plan International have been working to tackle the barriers girls and young women face in the community of Embakasi in Nairobi. Girls face daily harassment, intimidation, violence and crime as they make their way to school or work. In May 2017, six CBRE colleagues travelled to Nairobi to find out more about the Safer Cities project. They met some of the young people we are aiming to help and saw the shocking reality of living in one of the poorest parts of Kenya. You can share their experience by clicking on their photo stories: www.cbre.eu/emea_en/safer_cities/index.html

Cities provide opportunities for young people, but with these opportunities come risks. For women and girls, economic opportunities are often undermined by the level of danger they face as they try to navigate the city, facing sexual violence, harassment and intimidation.
Girls in Embakasi, Nairobi feel unsafe in public places and on local transport. In Embakasi, 84% of adolescent girls have experienced sexual harassment in public places.

What is Plan International doing in Nairobi?
Plan International has been working across communities in Embakasi, from young people and their families to local authorities, transport companies and the local government. Through gender training, awareness raising and advocating for change, Plan International and CBRE will empower girls and boys to challenge social norms and gender inequality.

Through the Safer Cities project, we will work with approximately 4,000 young people to address damaging attitudes and social gender norms, empowering girls and boys to campaign and advocate for safety in Embakasi. Among other activities, we will:

Increase safety and access to public services for girls – working with the local government, communities and families to address the poor services e.g. improving street lights and signs in poorly lit or secluded areas, and improving access to parks and public spaces which are often dominated by men and boys.

Establish girls’ and boys’ clubs – training young people on gender equality, negative stereotypes and traditional gender roles. The young people we work with will identify unsafe areas on safety walks and will be taught skills to campaign the local government for change, empowering girls and giving them a voice.

Increase adolescent girls’ independent and safe mobility in the city – improvements to unsafe and unreliable public transport services, training drivers and local authorities to understand the risks girls face and how they can make public transport safer and more inclusive of girls.

How can you help?
Help us to raise money for Plan International and direct your friends and family to this page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/2018EMEACharityBikeRideChallenge

To find out more about our project with Plan International, please email emeacharity@cbre.com