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Description
The project aims at educating and mobilizing the civil society to fight violence against women. By organizing an awareness-raising campaign to recognize violence against women and the need to interfere and by sensitizing police officers about the issue, we expect to raise the awareness of the public about the forms and consequences of domestic violence and have an increase of 30% in reporting. The project provides for the following activities: surveys, monitoring and analyses, in particular a survey of the attitudes of police officers towards domestic violence and their knowledge of the legal framework, an analysis of the statistical data from 112 emergency number calls and cases from reality, monitoring of public policies and practices regarding domestic violence in four cities in the country (the work of the police, the prosecution, the court and social services). The project envisages an awareness-raising campaign including a communication strategy developed by a working group of representatives of the police, reporters, female victims of domestic violence and experts supporting victims of violence, separate messages developed for the different target groups (the Roma community, young people aged 18 – 30, the elderly, etc.), a programme for empowerment of female victims of domestic violence, media and public events together with the police and women – ambassadors and an advocacy campaign, including advocacy to set up Regional centres with bar councils in the cities of Sofia, Silistra, Smolyan and others.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was aimed at raising awareness and activating civil society against violence against women.
All activities implemented under the project contributed to its realization.
The focus groups held with police officers from four districts of the country - Sliven, Silistra, Smolyan and Sofia city, contributed to the research and analysis of their attitudes and their approach to the problem of domestic violence.
The twelve workshops with representatives of the court, prosecutor''s office, social welfare directorates, municipal representatives, social services, again in the four districts, enabled the development of a monitoring system of public policies and practices for collecting information on the problem of domestic violence, as well as outlining the problem areas within their work on cases of violence.
To raise awareness of the problem of domestic violence, an awareness campaign was organized and conducted through which prevention materials were distributed nationwide. In addition, public awareness of the issue was achieved through the voice of the five ambassadors - women who have been in situations of violence but are no longer afraid to speak out about the hell they have experienced. Their voices were heard by large audiences on social media, at training sessions, workshops, media, and roundtables.
In terms of advocacy, the project team actively participated in working groups to draft an amendment to the Domestic Violence Act and actively lobbied for the opening of new support services for victims of domestic violence. The Resource Centre was also active, through which information on the topic was provided to interested stakeholders, students etc., as well as assistance was provided for improving the qualification of professionals working with victims of violence.
Through 8 trainings, the qualification of police officers in the four districts for dealing with cases of domestic violence was improved. Five cases of domestic violence were described from the team''s practice to be used as good practice for work on this topic.
As a result of the project, several documents were produced: analytical reports and various opinion papers. Numerous interviews were also given on the subject. Difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic did not prove to be an obstacle to the timely and qualitative implementation of the planned activities.
Thanks to the efforts of the project, new contacts were made with governmental and non-governmental organizations. As a result of the active advocacy campaign, a Legal Aid Office was opened in the city of Sofia. The project was supported by an active legal aid office in Sofia, a legal clinic to support victims of violence and a new crisis center. We trained 5 women who accepted to be ambassadors to combat violence against women and their voices were heard by the general public.