SAFEPLACE VIETNAM – NAVIGATING RISKS IN SOCIAL BUSINESS 

 

LEADER TEAM

Dinh Thi Yen Nhi

Pham Ba Quoc Huy 

Le Nguyen Viet Anh

 

TEAM MEMBERS

Duong Quynh Anh

Nguyen Thien Ngan

Ton Nu Bao Ngan

Nguyen Nhat Cam Ninh

Hoang Nhu An

Le Nguyen My Trang

Nguyen Tien Vuong

Nguyen Ngoc Tu Quyen

Nguyen Bao Duy

Nguyen Minh Duc

Le Quoc Vinh

Le Quang Duy

Huynh Ngoc Thao My

 

ABOUT SAFEPLACE VIETNAM 

SafePlace Vietnam is a community project using the social business concept based on current social challenges and UN Goals. In order to listen to stories, share experiences, and delve into the unseen facets of victims’ lives, our project attempts to establish a secure, tranquil, and meaningful environment for victims of sexual abuse.

In a report conducted by the General Department of Police, Ministry of Public Security, an average of 1600–1800 cases of sexually abused children are reported annually, even though it is believed that this number may get higher as a large part of victims chose not to publicly share about their incidents. According to VGP,  in the 10 months of 2022, the Child Protection Center 111 received 399,500 calls, 8,900 notifications via the app, 24,700 consultation calls, and 1,400 intervention support cases (VGP, 2022). Two sources of information have indicated an upward trend in the number of sexual abuse cases in Vietnam. Sexual abuse has a lot of negative impacts on children’s physical and mental health. The consequences of sexual abuse are not only immediate but also long-term, causing pain, physical injury, life-threatening confusion, and discontent among the people, including the children and their parents.

 

TARGET CUSTOMER 

Our clientele consisted of individuals aged 15 to 24, known as the “Youth” age category by both the World Health Organization and the United Nations. The majority of our patrons have exhibited a degree of cognitive maturation, and it has been posited that mental health afflictions frequently arise within this demographic (Jurewicz, 2015). Consequently, when instances of Sexual Abuse affect those within this age bracket, they are at a heightened risk of experiencing psychological turmoil that can significantly impede their mental and overall well-being.

Similarly, a preliminary UNICEF poll found that almost 71% of Vietnamese youths are part of the most globally connected generation, which makes use of social media and cutting-edge technology (Nguyen, 2022). Given this statistical observation, SafePlace Vietnam has ascertained that the target audience for its services primarily falls within this age group, as our key values are predominantly online and easily accessible under any circumstance.

Our company targets two distinct categories of customers: Social customers and Market customers. The foundation for this approach is rooted in the differences we have observed in our target audience’s age range, which spans from 15 to 24. Within this age range, there are challenges with regard to financial independence among our key customers. According to Barroso’s 2019 report, an analysis conducted by the Pew Research Center on Census Bureau data claimed that only 24% of young adults were financially independent at the age of 22 or below in 2018. To address this concern, SafePlace Vietnam offers its customers the option of utilizing our comprehensive and free-of-charge services or making payments for more effective services.

 

SAFEPLACE’S BUSINESS MODEL OPERATION 

SafePlace’s business model incorporates various revenue streams, enabling the project to sustain its operations and expand its impact. The model consists of the following:

Consulting Sessions (50% Revenue): SafePlace Vietnam offers consulting sessions with trained professionals and experts to provide personalized guidance and support to survivors. These sessions can be conducted in person or online, and a fee is charged for each session.

Events (20% Revenue): SafePlace organizes events such as workshops, seminars, and conferences on topics related to sexual harassment, consent, and healthy relationships. These events not only raise awareness but also generate revenue through ticket sales, sponsorships, and partnerships.

Social Content (30% Revenue): SafePlace creates engaging and informative content on its social media platforms, including educational articles, videos, and infographics. The project monetizes this content through advertisements, sponsorships, and collaborations with relevant brands or organizations.

SafePlace Vietnam is a groundbreaking project aimed at addressing the pressing issue of sexual harassment and abuse. Our business model revolves around meeting the diverse needs of our customers, primarily survivors of sexual abuse, by providing them with a safe and supportive platform to heal effectively, share their stories, and build their own profiles as survivors and activists against sexual abuse.

One of the core customer demands we cater to is the need for effective healing. We understand that survivors require a safe space where they can access various healing services and resources to aid their recovery process. To meet this demand, SafePlace developed an application with counseling features for professional guidance. 

Another crucial customer need we address is the desire to share personal experiences. SafePlace provides a secure environment like confession and podcasts where survivors can openly share their stories without fear of judgment or retribution. 

Participating in raising awareness and influencing public opinions on sexual abuse is another key aspect of our business model. SafePlace Vietnam actively engages with our users on social media and at social events to encourage them to become advocates against sexual abuse. 

Furthermore, SafePlace recognizes the importance of making a social impact. We aim to create a platform that not only supports individual survivors but also contributes to the broader movement against sexual abuse.

 

BUSINESS IMPACTS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROJECT TO SOCIETY

SafePlace provides survivors with a supportive environment where they can share their experiences and receive validation, leading to increased confidence and self-esteem. It empowers them to reclaim their lives and move forward.

By creating safe spaces and promoting awareness, SafePlace encourages survivors to break the silence surrounding sexual harassment. This helps overcome societal stigma and generates a broader conversation about consent, respect, and accountability.

We emphasize education and awareness, which help prevent future instances of sexual harassment. By educating young people about healthy relationships, consent, and boundaries, SafePlace contributes to creating a generation that respects and understands the importance of consent.

SafePlace ensures that survivors have access to essential support services and counseling. By bridging the gap between survivors and these resources, the project helps in the recovery and healing process. Of course, as a social business, we would encounter many risks, from macro to micro.

 

NAVIGATING THE RISKS OF PROJECT 

One thing we have identified as one of the risks that we need to face is the prejudice in Vietnamese society. Sexual-related topics are often considered sensitive, therefore, they are not usually mentioned and dealt with in a thorough way. Although the Vietnamese government has developed and come up with many initiatives to help deal with the problem (1) – Guardian (Osborne, 2019), there is still a huge part of our society that overlooks this problem. The indifference is getting more serious, in the case of the sexual abuse of young women between the ages of 18 and 25. According to research conducted by the Ministry of Labor – Invalids, and Social Affairs, the majority of victims of sexual harassment in the workplace are women (78.2%) between the ages of 18 and 30. Most victims only begin to seek help when they have been severely harassed for a long time (VTV Digital, 2022).

It is believed that although the Vietnamese government has put a lot of effort into resolving the issues, the regulations and processes to resolve them are still considered “complicated, problematic, and hard-to-solve”(VTV Digital, 2022), and sometimes the process has a negative impact on the victim’s personal life and work. Therefore, it is very difficult for the victims and authorities to resolve the problems effectively. Also, the definition of “sexual harassment and sexual abuse” in the Vietnamese regulations is still considered ambiguous and unclear, so it is hard for the authority to determine an action as “sexual harassment”.

Regarding risks, an underfunded budget is considered to be one of the top risks facing SafePlace Vietnam since its establishment. This was caused by the fact that 62% of the companies value the prospects of “government” higher than “Environmental” and “Social” aspects (PwC & Vietnam Institute of  Directions (VIOD), 2022), even though ESG activities in Vietnam are followed by many companies and corporations. Therefore, it takes more time for sponsors to consider the need to cooperate with us. Another reason for our lack of budget is that, as a business offering consulting services and multimedia content on social media, it would take a lot of time to raise the awareness and trust of the audience. Consequently, the shortage of budget will limit the promotion of workshops and media content, making it harder for us to organize and host the desired programs and events for our audience. These will, in the short term, affect the vision and goals of sharing knowledge with our audience. In the long term, this shortage of funds will have a direct negative impact on our cash flows and on how we raise revenues in the future, as we are unable to attract and introduce our consulting service to the needed customers.

Another risk we may face is the inability to reach and contact sexually-abused victims to get their stories. As mentioned in the earlier part, sexual-related contents are still considered sensitive and heavy-to-talk-about in Vietnam, and in many cases, victims are usually blamed, judged by others for what they have been through. Also, many cases of sexual abuse involve family members, close acquaintances, or their friends. Therefore, victims usually feel unsafe and are unwilling to open up and share their stories. This could lead to a lack of content where we need to get real-life stories from the victims, which makes our customers feel a lack of deep understanding and realness in our sharing. Therefore, customers may feel that SafePlace does not have enough expertise and experience in this field, leading to distrust of SafePlace’s services.

 

RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 

Figure 1. Risk matrix (conducted through research) 

As we have stated the risks that we may face, here are some solutions to mitigate the risks.

First of all, for the risk of a limited budget and the objective reason that businesses are less likely to value social issues when making investments, we choose to accept it and try to attract small donors in the community instead. 

To do this effectively, we’ll need to overcome the second cause of attracting customers by improving and creating content that’s more engaging and valuable on social networking platforms. To be more specific, we’ll review existing posts and consider changes in content or appearance to attract more people. In addition, we will need new types of content that show empathy for victims of sexual abuse as well as build credibility and a sense of security for the community when it comes to SafePlace, which will possibly make donors willing to donate to the project. 

With the above strategy, we have also partly reduced the second risk, which is not being able to reach customers. However, in order to optimally reduce risk, we will need more effective promotion strategies. Because sensitive content like sexual abuse will hardly be able to run ads, we choose the world of mouth marketing strategy, cooperate with influencers and corresponding projects to spread among as many communities as possible. Since then, when SafePlace has gained a certain influence and reputation, there will be people in the community who may be willing to open up and share their stories with us.

By managing the risks mentioned above, SafePlace will be closer to fulfilling its mission by raising awareness about the seriousness of the problem more widely in the community, which will indirectly encourage them to speak out about their story. From there, SafePlace will be able to understand and improve consulting services via app and web in the future. In addition, the dissemination of content and community support will help SafePlace achieve its goal of providing the community with solid and trustworthy protection for sexual assault victims.

 

LESSON LEARNED 

Starting a project with limited resources, and a lack of specialized knowledge and experience can be challenging. However, these weaknesses can be transformed into opportunities for growth and improvement. By recognizing and addressing these weaknesses, we can acquire more professional knowledge, gather valuable community opinions, and ultimately revise the action plan for better effectiveness. 

We recognize the lack of specialized knowledge and experience as an opportunity for growth. We invest time and effort in learning about sexual harassment, its impact, effective prevention, and how to build businesses. 

Community surveys are a powerful tool to collect opinions and assess the needs of the community regarding sexual harassment. By involving the community, we can gain insights into their specific concerns and challenges, allowing for a more tailored approach.

We seek the opinions and assessments of community experts. Their specialized knowledge and experience will provide valuable insights that can shape the project’s strategies. 

Recognizing that a one-time survey may not capture the evolving needs and concerns of the community, We continuously conduct surveys to stay updated on the changing dynamics of sexual harassment.

Our ultimate goal is to revise and improve the project’s action plan. We incorporate the acquired professional knowledge, community opinions, and expert assessments to develop a comprehensive and effective strategy. 

 

CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, SafePlace Vietnam is a community project using the social business concept, based on current social challenges and UN Goals. In order to listen to stories, share experiences, and delve into the unseen facets of victims’ lives, our project attempts to establish a secure, tranquil, and meaningful environment for victims. The Vietnamese government has put a lot of effort into resolving the issues. But the regulations and processes to resolve them are still considered “complicated, problematic, and hard-to-solve”. Besides, SafePlace is still facing some risks relating to financial conditions and customer approach. Therefore, we will need to improve and create content that’s more engaging and valuable on social networking platforms in order to mitigate those risks. As a result, SafePlace will be closer to fulfilling its mission along with providing the potential values better to the community by raising awareness about the seriousness of the problem. Finally, through the case of our social business, some lessons can be learned as experiences for us to improve SafePlace such as addressing weaknesses to seek growth opportunities and gain market insights to develop better offers, thereby creating more effective action plans. 

REFERENCES LIST

Barroso, A.,2019. Majority of Americans say parents are doing too much for their young adult children, Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/10/23/majority-of-americans-say-parents-are-doing-too-much-for-their-young-adult-children/ 

Ha.G  (2017, March 15). Mỗi năm có 1.600-1.800 vụ xâm hại trẻ em được phát hiện. Tạp chí Kinh tế và Dự báo

https://kinhtevadubao.vn/moi-nam-co-1600-1800-vu-xam-hai-tre-em-duoc-phat-hien-14244.html

Jurewicz, I., 2015. Mental health in young adults and adolescents–supporting general physicians to provide holistic care. Clinical Medicine, 15(2), p.151.

Nguyen, R., 2022. ‘How the Digital Age Affects Vietnam’s Youth’, Vietnam Times.

Osborne. (2019, June 21). Báo Anh viết về chiến dịch chống lạm dụng tình dục trẻ em ở Việt Nam. Unicef for Children. Retrieved August 9, 2023, from  https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/vi/nh%E1%BB%AFng-c%C3%A2u-chuy%E1%BB%87n/b%C3%A1o-anh-vi%E1%BA%BFt-v%E1%BB%81-chi%E1%BA%BFn-d%E1%BB%8Bch-ch%E1%BB%91ng-l%E1%BA%A1m-d%E1%BB%A5ng-t%C3%ACnh-d%E1%BB%A5c-tr%E1%BA%BB-em-%E1%BB%9F-vi%E1%BB%87t-nam

PwC & Vietnam Institute of  Directions (VIOD). (2022). Từ tham vọng đến hành động – Báo cáo về mức độ sẵn sàng thực hành ESG tại Việt Nam năm 2022. In PwC . PwC.

VGP (2022, November 17). Nhận thức đúng đắn, đầy đủ về hành vi xâm hại trẻ em. Báo điện tử VTV News. https://vtv.vn/xa-hoi/nhan-thuc-dung-dan-day-du-ve-cac-hanh-vi-xam-hai-tre-em-20221117153516402.htm

VTV Digital (2022, October 17). Quấy rối tình dục nơi công sở: Làm sao để nạn nhân không âm thầm chịu đựng?  Báo điện tử VTV News. https://vtv.vn/xa-hoi/quay-roi-tinh-duc-noi-cong-so-lam-sao-de-nan-nhan-khong-am-tham-chiu-dung-20221017104742089.htm