The “Guardians of Public Transport” project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and executed by the Central America Regional Initiative (CARI) in El Salvador and implemented by LAB-CO, aimed to reduce sexual harassment in public transport by strengthening the sense of agency among public transport drivers through awareness and promotion of empathy towards sexual harassment situations on public transport units.

The project involved the development of five workshops focused on mental health and the promotion of healthy masculinities, along with an immersive virtual reality experience intended to strengthen the drivers’ empathy towards victims of sexual harassment in public transport.

The workshops were conducted in four groups belonging to routes in Apopa (San Salvador Department) and Santa Ana (Santa Ana Department). At the conclusion of the project, a notable increase in empathy among the drivers was observed, as well as their greater willingness to intervene in situations of sexual harassment (by 15%). This result was achieved through the workshops, the use of virtual reality, and the development of protocols for action in cases of sexual harassment on public transport units. These were developed in direct collaboration with the drivers themselves, who defined a set of steps to identify cases of harassment, use actionable tools through pre-recorded messages to deter the harassment situation, including calling 911, providing personal information, and detailing the incident briefly and precisely.

In the words of one of the participants:

“The experience made me feel how perverse it is. I started thinking about the vulnerability of these women.”

 

“I had not understood that women suffered so much and so often from this.”

Virtual Reality as a Tool to Enhance Empathy

A meticulous virtual reality experience was developed to simulate a series of increasingly intense sexual harassment situations inside public transport. This simulation was based on previous research that included testimonies from various victims and the active participation of the drivers, who provided – through in-depth interviews – their perspectives and testimonies on sexual harassment and the drivers’ participation in these cases. The virtual reality is based on real testimonies and the findings of the documentary and field research conducted on public transport, its users, and drivers.

A bus driver wearing augmented reality glasses. Own photograph.

The immersive experience provided the drivers with the opportunity to experience sexual harassment from various perspectives: those of the users, the drivers themselves, and an omniscient spectator. By recreating these circumstances with a high degree of realism, the simulation provided a unique insight, integrating a range of experiences on the same phenomenon, moving away from conventional methods to raise awareness and foster empathy.

The adoption of this technology, typically associated with video games or police training programs, proved to be an innovative tool to enrich the empathic capacity of drivers in the field of public transport. Its success underscores the vast potential of this initiative to be extended to other routes in El Salvador and throughout Latin America, setting a significant precedent in the fight against sexual harassment in public spaces.