Gupshup by Chayn

In this episode, Hera Hussain interviews Lucy Ruthnum of Absolutely Lucy, a travel blogger and "heartfelt adventurer". Earlier this year, Lucy wrote a blog for us talking about her experience of emotional abuse and coercive control: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx27e7khjUM/

We discuss on some of the tips we've gathered at Chayn on identifying and dealing with coercive control.

Further reading: Chayn's Manipulation is Abuse guide https://chayn.gitbooks.io/manipulation-is-abuse/content/

Have you ever wondered how to react when someone tells you they are struggling? You may mean well but you could make things even worse. Listen to Anamta and Satvika break down the taboo in South Asian cultures around mental health and give tips for what not to say.

You can follow Satvika and Anamta on social media:

https://twitter.com/SatvikaKhera

https://www.facebook.com/anamta.rafique

Intro music by Diana Tso.

How do women in abusive relationships, and the organisations helping them in the UK use technology? That is the question for our inaugural Gupshup podcast. Hosted by the fabulous Rosie Spinks (@rojospinks), freelance journalist and feminist. 

GUESTS

Afsa Akbar @mintycrumbs, CHAYN

Nissa Ramsay @NissaRamsay, Comic Relief

Penny East, @PenelopeEA, SafeLives

Music by Diana Tso.

TECH VS. ABUSE PROJECT

techvsabuse.info

In 2016, Chayn partnered with Comic Relief, along with Safe Lives and We Are Snook, to launch a groundbreaking project Tech VS Abuse to explore and investigate the role of digital technologies in supporting victims of domestic abuse.

The project led to eye opening evidence that led to a better understanding pertaining to domestic violence and how online media could be leveraged as a tool empowering victims and people in chronic abusive relationships.

This episode was recorded and published in 2017 on soundcloud.

This episode is in Urdu.

Our founder, Hera Hussain sits down with two fellow Pakistanis - Nighat Dad, internationally celebrated activist and human rights defender and Kanwal Ahmed, a pioneer who is changing the entertainment industry's landscape with human stories. 

Kanwal Ahmed started the Soul Sisters Pakistan group 6 years ago which has given more than 189 000 women a safe space to be themselves and share their stories. After being selected by Facebook for their Community Leadership Programme (FCLP), Kanwal has been hosting her own talk show, Conversations with Kanwal. which features real-life stories of women, in their own words covering important issues such as domestic abuse, grief, colourism and child labour. Her videos have garnered millions of views online from across the world. Due to her work, hundreds of women reach out to Kanwal every day about their experiences of domestic abuse.

Nighat Dad is a lawyer and the founder of Digital Rights Foundation which works to help Pakistani women fight against online harassment. She is a campaigner for online freedom and contributed to a law against acid attacks. She specializes in family law and cyber law and was named one of TIME magazine's next generation leaders. In 2016, she was awarded the Atlantic Council Digital Freedom Award and Dutch government's Human Rights Tulip award. She became TED Fellow in 2016 and spoke at the TED Global stage. Her Online Harassment helpline supports countless women in Pakistan every month.

And in case you are new to us, here's a bit about us and Hera Hussain. Hera is the Founder of CHAYN - a global volunteer-run project crowdsourcing resources on the web to address gender-based violence. This all started from the original Chayn Pakistan (chaynpakistan.org). Chayn has reached more than 300 000 people through its resources which are designed with survivors of abuse. Hera was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list.

Here are some important links for help:

Digital Rights Foundation: www.digitalrightsfoundation.pk

Digital Rights Foundation Anti-Harassment helpline: 

Soul Sisters Pakistan: facebook.com/groups/soulsistersproject

Conversations With Kanwal: facebook.com/ConversationswithKanwal 

Chayn Pakistan: chaynpakistan.org

How to build your own domestic violence case without a lawyer: chayn.gitbook.io/how-to-build-a-domestic-abuse-case-without-a-lawye/ 

Do It Yourself Online Safety guide (Urdu, Pashto): chayn.co/safety

You can follow Hera, Kanwal and Nighat on twitter:

https://twitter.com/herahussain

https://twitter.com/kanwalful

https://twitter.com/nighatdad

The podcast was recorded virtually as everyone was in a different part of the world (UK, Canada and Pakistan).

Music by Diana Tso.

Listen to Hera Hussain (Founder) and Tiffany Lo (UX Team Lead) talk about how CHAYN used Trello, Google docs, Slack and Webflow to collaborate across continents to launch our Getting Better & Moving On guide. If you think syncing with your (salaries) team across time zones is hard, imagine how it was for all our volunteers but we made it work. In this short and sweet episode, we discuss what worked and what didn't.

Music by Diana Tso.

Also, you get treated to some bollywood beats in the background as we sip masala chai and record this episode in between meetings. You can check out the guide here: https://www.gettingbetter.chayn.co/

You can follow Hera and Tiffany on twitter:

https://twitter.com/herahussain

https://twitter.com/dev_tiffanylo

In this podcast, Rosie Maguire and Satvika Khera from our team talk about mental health apps and whether they can support survivors of abuse in their journey towards recovery and healing. 

This is related to our guide Getting Better & Moving On. See the full guide here: www.gettingbetter.chayn.co

Follow Rosie and Satvika on twitter:

https://twitter.com/_RosieMaguire

https://twitter.com/SatvikaKhera

Music by Diana Tso.