Damascus-SANA
In the midst of the Corona pandemic, which has caused an increase in reports of women being subjected to violence, the 16 Days of Anti-Gender-Based Violence campaign returns this year to a reminder of the need to spread a culture of combating violence against women, protecting women from it, and rehabilitating battered women.
According to the figures of the United Nations Women, some countries have reported that two out of three women have experienced some form of violence since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to one in three women previously, to form the international campaign that starts on the 25th of November of each year and ends on the tenth of December The first is an opportunity to renew the definition of the dangers of violence against women, which is the most severe form of discrimination.
In Syria, governmental and non-governmental institutions are participating in various programs to protect women from violence, empower them in various fields, and rehabilitate battered women. They will participate in the campaign this year with various awareness programs under the title “Safety for all.. Gender-based violence is unacceptable.”
The Syrian Commission for Family and Population Affairs, through the Family Protection Unit, which opened in 2017, provides integrated services for socially, health, psychological and legal abused women, vocational and educational training, and temporary residence for no more than six months, so that they can be followed up later in a way that helps to reintegrate them into society and communicate with their families, as explained by the Director of Family Affairs. Rana Khalifawi in the body to the representative of SANA.
According to Khalifawi, the Family Protection Unit accommodates more than 90 cases of women and children and provides a number of services to women of different ages who do not need residency outside their families, through the unit’s family center that contains outpatient clinics and provides psychosocial support services and legal advice through a specialized team of managers Case, caregivers, psychiatrists, pediatricians and gynecologists.
The authority is currently working, according to Khalifawi, on a centralized automated case management system that studies case tracks and the services provided to it, linking the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the various concerned authorities in the governorates, where cases are recorded while maintaining confidentiality and followed up according to a work plan, and it is in the process of experimentation in the Tal and Douma regions.
Among the associations active in the field of combating violence against women, the Syrian Family Planning Association has designated 15 centers for women’s development in various governorates known as “safe spaces” that provide psychological and social support services and manage and direct the abused situation, according to the director of the centers in the association, Ruba Laqmha.
She explained to Laqmsha that the Women's Development Centers implement their services with the support of the United Nations Population Fund and carry out training courses for women of different ages in languages, computers, and other vocational courses, such as teaching sewing, knitting and hairdressing, with the aim of empowering them economically.
In addition to the women’s development centers, she pointed out to Qamshha that there are 17 mobile teams distributed in ten governorates that provide psychological and social counseling services, as well as free health services through mobile clinics, noting that the association, during the 16-day campaign, carried out a number of awareness-raising activities that promote a culture of rejecting violence in all its forms and defining Women have their rights guaranteed by the constitution and the law.
In terms of numbers, she indicated to Qamshha that more than 19,000 women benefited from the services of safe spaces and mobile teams during the first nine months of this year, and 4,652 women participated in training courses during the same period, noting that the number of women who were subjected to violence and provided with case management services reached 2,159 women. Referred 482 abused women to receive the services they need through other institutions and associations, in coordination with the Family Planning Association.
The United Nations has launched the 16 Days Campaign to Combat Gender-Based Violence since 1991, starting on November 25, being the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ending on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
Muhannad Suleiman