Living without Violence – Support for Women and Children Suffering from Domestic Violence
About of project:
Project Period: 01.06.2014 – 31.12.2016
Budget: € 245,000 (EU contribution)
Implementing Agency: Gender Perspectives (International NGO)
Partners: Caritas Linz (Austria) religious charitable organization, Austrian Development Cooperation (OEZA) and Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
Location: Belarus
Description
According to social surveys, one out of three women in Belarus suffers from physical violence in the family. The Project experts believe that "there is always a way out"; they address the problem in a comprehensive manner, with wide-scale information support.
The Project comprises two interlinked components. Their common goals are the following:
Access of women – family violence survivors – to integrated assistance; improvement of the quality and efficiency of social services; reinforcement of inter-agency cooperation of public institutions and non-governmental organizations that assist violence survivors, inter alia, through the support of mini-projects implemented by public and non-commercial organizations; raising awareness about the problem of domestic violence and the ways to solve it.
Intermediate Project Outcomes. In July 2015, in Minsk, a temporary safe-stay apartment was opened for women – family violence survivors – and their children. The service has been used by 32 women and their 35 children. In addition, 202 women received professional assistance under the Project: from psychologists, lawyers, barristers and medical doctors to social workers.
62 social workers and psychologists enhanced their professional skills in providing assistance to family violence survivors during three training seminars with the participation of experts from Austria. During their visit to Austria, the team of specialists of public agencies and non-governmental organizations from Belarus studied the experience and social technology of assisting home violence survivors, as well as some aspects of organization of intervention programs for perpetrators of violence.
The social video There Is Always a Way Out, with a national hotline phone number for home violence survivors – 8-801-100-8-801, is shown on central national TV channels. The Project information materials, in particular, answer such questions as: where can women with children who have suffered from violence seek help; how should local police officers respond to reports about family violence; how does the mechanism of prosecution for home violence function?
Points of Contact:
Anna Korshun, Project Supervisor,
+375 17 211 02 51, info@genderperspectives.by
Hyperlink: http://www.genderperspectives.by/
