What is now being more and more recognized is that sexual and gender-based violence is part of the whole migration cycle, it’s part of the reasons why people leave, either because of violence or because of deprivation, it is part of the journey through a number of transit countries, and it can be also a part of the reality in the host communities.
What is also now more and more recognized is the necessity to support migrant women and girls, to implement individualized analysis of the situation of a person who might have suffered violence, to provide specific care to respond to that situation and to increase knowledge of professionals working in this field about solutions that are specially tailored to victims and survivors of SGBV.
With this in mind, the BASE Migrant and refugee child-friendly support services in cases of sexual and gender-based violence project aims to contribute to improvement of support services for victims of violence and empower migrant/refugee women as cultural advisors; increase the capacity of support professionals to understand sociocultural factors and communicate effectively with migrant/ refugee survivors of gender-based violence, and raise public awareness on the vulnerability of migrant/ refugee girls to gender-based violence.
First Transnational Cooperation meeting of the BASE project gathered 32 experts working within support services for migrant victims of sexual and gender-based violence from 8 EU countries on the 1st of July in Coimbra, Portugal.
Experts from the public authorities and organisations working with victims and survivors of SGBV during one-day intensive event:
- reflected on the findings of the BASE research on sexual and gender-based violence towards girls from migrant/refugee background in Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece, the UK, Austria, Italy and Slovenia (finding will be published soon on CESIE’s website);
- analysed country contexts and specific support services for migrant/ refugee women survivors of SGBV or those at risk in each country;
- discussed the challenges to support migrant/refugee girls and women survivors of SGBV, and
- debated solutions, proposals and strategies to respond to the challenges.
The discussions were focused around 4 main themes: gender-related vulnerabilities and communication, access to services and facilities, sexual and reproductive health issues, partnerships and inter-institutional collaboration. We are now preparing a summary report on challenges and solutions that were discussed during the meeting and will share with you.
Follow us #BASEgbv // #BASEempowerment and contact Ruta Grigaliunaite for more information about the project and activities.
About the project
BASE Migrant and refugee child-friendly support services in cases of sexual and gender-based violence is cofunded by Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) – Prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children. The project aims at contributing to the development and sustainability of inclusive support services in cases of GBV against girls by Empowering migrant/refugee women as cultural advisors.
Partners
The partnership holds together 8 organisations:
- Coordinator: “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center (Cyprus
- Associacao Portuguesa Conversas De Psicologia – Apcdp (Portugal)
- GENDER ALTERNATIVES FOUNDATION (Bulgaria)
- KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU – KMOP (Greece)
- Rinova Limited (UK)
- Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung Fur Analyse, Beratung Und Interdisziplinare Forschung – abif (Austria)
- Znanstveno-Raziskovalno Sredisce KOPER – ZRS KOPER (Slovenia)
- CESIE (Italia)
For further information
Read more about BASE.
Follow us #BASEgbv // #BASEempowerment and contact Ruta Grigaliunaite for more information about the project and how you can get involved in the activities for positive change.
