The April meeting of the Working Group on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women in Košice focused mainly on the discussion about which institutions and organisations are involved in the protection, assistance and support of women experiencing intimate partner violence and their children.

The need to get to know more about the different actors in the system of protection, help and support and their competences and responsibilities arose in particular from the new members of the Working Group. Together, we named the institutions and organisations in the system of protection, assistance and support and the members of the Working Group presented the possibilities of protection and assistance as well as the competences of their respective institutions and organisations. We also talked about the fact that each institution enters into some part of women’s experience of violence and sees only one particular stage of that experience. However, for women experiencing violence and their children, the experience of violence is a continuum that lasts for several years, and they are often in contact with several institutions and organisations simultaneously when dealing with the situation of violence.

This discussion proved to be fruitful, and the Working Group expressed interest in continuing this discussion in the next meeting, where members would like to focus more on the particular time and stage of the experience of violence at which different institutions and organizations enter the process.

The project „We stand with women. We protect and support them!“ benefits from a 486 622 € grant from Norway through the Norway Grants. The project has been co-financed from the State Budget of the Slovak Republic in the amount of 72 993 €.

The aim of the project is to increase availability of specialist counselling centres for women – survivors of intimate partner violence and their children in Kosice region by enhancing and increasing the quality of support services in the existing counselling centres in Košice, Michalovce and Spišská Nová Ves and establishing new counselling centres in Rožňava, Gelnica and Sobrance. At the same time, our aim is to make information about the counselling centres and help and support they provide more available to women in Košice region and to improve the response of institutions where women and children seek protection from violence.

The project is implemented by Fenestra in partnership with OZ HANA and OZ Pomoc rodine.

More about the project: https://www.fenestra.sk/en/we-stand-with-women/

The content of this article is the responsibility of Fenestra, OZ Hana and OZ Pomoc rodine. The programme administrator is not responsible for any information contained in this article.