Co-Founder, SafeJoy
Non-Profit Organisation Management
When Ammara Shabbir (MPP 2019) left her hometown in Pakistan to pursue her studies in Singapore, she was yearning for a nurturing environment to cultivate her passion for social change. At the LKY School, she crossed paths with two students who shared her vision, sparking a collaboration that would lead to a life-changing project.
Read on for Ammara’s account of her LKY School experience.
I worked in the business sector for a decade, and although I climbed the ranks, I struggled to find a sense of purpose. This made me ask myself: “Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? How am I uplifting the people around me?” I had a strong desire to do more for the well-being of society, and that’s how I decided to pursue an MPP degree.
Although I applied for public policy programmes in several universities, the LKY School was my first choice. In my opinion, it is one of the best public policy schools around, and the whole experience of studying there has been the best part of my life. The academic affairs team provided great support in every aspect of student life, and the orientation week helped me to overcome my fear of living in a foreign country.
Of the classes that I took, the Policy Innovation Lab module was the most valuable, as it gave me the opportunity to design and implement a policy solution for a real-world problem that was well-researched, innovative, and user-focused. The weekly project presentations and critical feedback from our professors and fellow students helped us a great deal in fine-tuning our policy solutions.
With the confidence and knowledge gained from this module, I was able to collaborate with two schoolmates—Anjali Shivananda (MPP 2019) and Palak Rawal (MPP 2020)—to launch SafeJoy, a game-based toolkit to boost the awareness, capacity, and willingness of children to identify and report sexual abuse.
Creating a Safer World for Children in India and PakistanAs a team, we conducted preliminary research on child sex abuse in India and Pakistan, and we were shocked to learn that
one in every two children has faced some form of sex abuse in India, and
more than 10 children are being abused in Pakistan every day. The studies that we came across also showed that 70% of the children who are sexually abused may never seek help, due to the lack of awareness or social stigma surrounding the issue. As a result, these child victims do not receive adequate support at the right time.
Although there have been some attempts at interventions in India, these solutions lacked effectiveness and scalability. And within Pakistan, there was no practical resource to directly address this issue.
One of our co-founders Anjali had worked with child victims, some of whom shared that they didn’t even know when they were being sexually abused. This was the starting point for our discussions, which led to the conceptualisation of SafeJoy, a handy toolkit that could be used by any trained facilitator to educate children about safe and unsafe touch, so that children could report incidents that made them uncomfortable, to a trusted adult.
One of our co-founders Anjali had worked with child victims, some of whom shared that they didn’t even know when they were being sexually abused. This was the starting point for our discussions, which led to the conceptualisation of SafeJoy, a handy toolkit that could be used by any trained facilitator to educate children about safe and unsafe touch, so that children could report incidents that made them uncomfortable to a trusted adult.
It took us over a year to create the SafeJoy toolkit, from conceptualisation to final product development. We realised the importance of the human element in this whole process, which is why we didn’t try to create a self-running mobile app or game. SafeJoy consists of a comic strip and a card game, but there is a step-by-step process to using these components that requires an adult facilitator. For example, in the beginning, a facilitator will ask children to identify an adult whom they can tell anything to, without being fearful. After which, they will participate in a storytelling session where they are shown a comic strip that highlights different sex abuse scenarios. Finally, they will play an interactive card game, to apply the responses that they have learned.
In 2019, we presented SafeJoy at the LKY School’s Global Public Policy Network conference, and it was selected as “
Best Project” among 32 entries from leading policy schools.
Putting Ideas to the TestWith the award, we received seed funding from the LKY School to conduct pilot studies in India and Pakistan. As I was from Pakistan, my role was to convert all the components of SafeJoy, such as the facilitator’s guide and the games, into the local language. The next stage was to connect with social welfare and public sector organisations to carry out the sessions, and this turned out to be challenging. Most of the schools and organisations that I approached were either non-responsive or reluctant to share sex abuse information with children, and it was difficult to convince them that sex abuse was something that children needed to learn about, just like dental hygiene or road safety.
After several rejections, I started to finetune my strategy for approaching stakeholders. During my initial meetings with school leaders, I wouldn’t mention SafeJoy, but instead, I would present data and evidence to help my audience understand the gravity of the situation. In Pakistan, there have been numerous cases of child sexual abuse leading to homicide, which have garnered attention on a national level, and highlighting these cases was useful to get everyone on the same page. I would only introduce SafeJoy if I sensed that stakeholders were receptive, and I would describe how I had personally used the toolkit with my young nieces and their peers. At this point, some stakeholders would be interested, but they would have questions or lingering doubts. I would then offer them the option to conduct our SafeJoy sessions while sitting in as observers, so they could step in or end the sessions if necessary. Sometimes, I would do multiple demonstrations before conducting an actual session—whatever it took to gain their trust.
I am proud to say that so far, the response to SafeJoy has been wholly positive. We conducted our pilot studies with 632 children in six schools, and trained 33 teachers to use our toolkit. In every school that I visited for post-session follow-ups, I was asked by the school heads to conduct training sessions with more children. Moreover, several teachers—and even a school director—requested that I bring the SafeJoy programme to their own children’s schools.
Embracing New BeginningsAt the moment, we don’t have plans to advance SafeJoy beyond the pilot stage, due to personal commitments and geographical challenges. I’ve since relocated to the UK, and I’ve also become a new mother, which is why I’ve put my career on hold.
Although I love my motherhood journey, I’m eager to restart my professional life. I know that it will be challenging for me to re-enter the workforce in a new country, especially with the post-Covid economic recession, but I’m doing what I can to prepare myself. In my free time, I’m revising my class lecture notes to refresh my qualitative and quantitative research knowledge, and using the tips from the LKY School’s career development workshops to sharpen my interviewing skills and make my CV and LinkedIn profile more attractive. Because of my LKY School experience, I feel optimistic about the possibilities ahead, and I’m excited by the prospect of helping a new community to thrive.