Issues Affecting Women Programme Grants (2009)

• Alliance for Protection against Domestic Violence

  To ensure the sustainable provision of services to victims of domestic violence while NGO members of the Alliance lobby for the adoption of amendments to the Bulgarian “Law on Protection against Domestic Violence”. The amendments are to guarantee public funding support for the implementation of the law and consequently for services for the victims in the diverse locations of the Alliance: including Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Targovishte, Silistra, Pleven, Pernik, Haskovo. USD 207,894

• American Civil Liberties Union

  To restore and advance the rights of women who experience violence. Its objectives include: pursuing justice through strategic litigation cases; advocating for greater protection for domestic violence survivors, victims of trafficking, sexual harassment and employer abuse; enacting new policies that protect women from violence; and increasing public awareness of the issue. USD 400,000 (Over two years)

• American Domestic Violence Crisis Line

  To fund work with American women and children who are victims of domestic violence and abuse in foreign countries. It will provide them with advocacy, resources and tools to enable them to navigate the complicated international jurisdictional, legal and social landscapes either abroad or in the US. To help achieve this, an international toll-free crisis line serving 6.6 million American civilians overseas will be accessible in 175 countries. In addition, the organisation is advocating for government funding for this invisible population to ensure the long-term sustainability of the programme. USD 264,300 (Over two years)

• Art Works for Change

  To support this US-based project that produces international travelling exhibitions using art as a catalyst to raise awareness of issues such as violence against women. The exhibitions seek to empower individuals, communities and leaders to address these issues in order to generate social change. USD 151,461

• Ashiana Network

  To fund individual counselling and support for young South Asian, Turkish and Iranian women in London who are experiencing domestic violence or are at risk of forced marriage. Ashiana Network provides these women with culturally sensitive advice and safe housing and enables them to make positive and appropriate choices for themselves. USD 288,914 (Over two years)

• Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives

  To combat the commission of gender and identity-based violations in India, including “honour” crimes, through rights-based advocacy and legal interventions and to ensure state accountability for women’s rights. The project aims to provide legal support for both the survivors of gender and identity-based violence and the human rights defenders who are also targeted in such matters. It intervenes with the police and courts to support cases and to build capacity to provide adequate responses. USD 239,418 (Over two years)

• CARE USA

  To assist local NGO anti-trafficking networks in Bosnia &Herzegovina and Croatia to improve their effectiveness in raising awareness of, responding to and preventing trafficking. The project helps them to develop links to anti-trafficking networks (in Serbia for instance) with the same goals, and enables networks and member NGOs to exchange information and best practices to make their work more efficient. It helps to increase the networks’ capacities to monitor governmental anti-trafficking policies and to advocate for a human rightsbased approach in all stages of the work, from prevention to assistance. USD 203,502 (Over two years)

• The Center for Court Innovation

  To target the criminal courts of New York City in two pilot locations, the Midtown Community Court and Queens Criminal Court, and engage them in the fight against trafficking by: 1) enhancing the identification of trafficking victims who appear as defendants in the courtroom; 2) developing protocols on alternatives to prosecutions to reform the criminal justice system’s response to trafficking victims arrested for prostitution; and 3) delivering training programmes for criminal justice system professionals on dealing with human trafficking. USD 100,000 (Over two years)

• CEPIA Citizenship, Study, Research, Information and Action

  To contribute to the reduction of violence against women in Brazil and to reinforce a safety network for victims. This is achieved by mutually reinforcing strategies, such as the dissemination of information on women’s rights and public policies on violence against women. It also focuses on the sensitisation and capacity building of key strategic sectors working on such issues; the evaluation of existing services and publication of results; and the rein- forcement of women’s capacity to exercise their rights. USD 150,288 (Over two years)

• Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres

  To strengthen the Central American women’s movement across borders and to contribute to increasing the levels of physical and emotional integrity, economic justice, and leadership of women – particularly young women. The project will grant funds and build the capacity of young women’s groups working on a broad range of themes related to empowering young women; and of organised migrant and immigrant women’s groups working to promote and defend the human rights of women migrants within Central America. USD 300,000 (Over two years)

• Libertà (Formerly Gwaan Livity)

  To develop a specialised service in Geneva and the French-speaking area of Switzerland for victims of trafficking. Libertà will operate a support helpline and provide direct assistance to victims as well as build a network and collaborate with public institutions and local organisations to facilitate victim identify ication and assistance. It will also raise public awareness about human trafficking and advocate for victims’ rights and protection. USD 139,263

• Macedonian Woman’s Rights Centre

  To create a better life and social integration for women and children victims of domestic violence by providing them with a safe environment where they can live free from threat or violence. The Centre links up with state institutions on behalf of victims to ensure that they have access to services (psychological, social, pedagogical and medical) in accordance with their needs and interests. USD 135,000 (Over three years)

• Montgomeryshire Family Crisis Centre

  To help and support both the victims and the perpetrators of domestic violence in Wales. This project aims to strengthen the Perpetrator Programme which helps perpetrators learn how to acknowledge and control their behaviour, to take responsibility for their actions and understand the effects of domestic violence on their partners and children. USD 232,299 (Over three years)

• Polaris Project

  To fund the National Human Trafficking Resource Centre which operates as the national hotline on human trafficking. To identify US citizens and foreign nationals who are victims of trafficking, and provide them with referrals and services. To improve local, regional and national levels of coordination and communication and to help build the capacity of city, state, and regional organisations to respond to victims’ needs. In addition, to provide the US anti-trafficking movement with more accessible and comprehensive assistance, including effective practitioner-based training, technical assistance, and strategic support. USD 150,000

• Safe Horizon

  To assist women victims of trafficking including immigrants subject to slavery, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and forced labour within the greater New York City area. Safe Horizon provides victims with a comprehensive array of services, including crisis intervention and safety planning, education and information, legal services, advocacy and counselling to meet their needs. It also serves as a liaison with all other service providers working on victims’ cases. USD 400,000 (Over two years)

• Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Développement Intégral

  To ensure legal and judicial support for victims of sexual violence and other forms of violence against women in Bunia and Beni, two towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The organisation facilitates medical and psycho-social support for victims of sexual violence according to their expressed needs, and facilitates their reinsertion into the economically productive community. It reinforces cooperation and collaboration among the many stakeholders working on this issue. USD 185,196 (Over two years)

• SOS CORPO Instituto Feminista para a Democracia

  To strengthen and expand a culture of rights that prevents and combats domestic and sexual violence against women. SOS Corpo works through social mobilisation and the political education of women’s groups and urban reform movements. It equips these groups to analyse, monitor and influence the implementation of public policies to address violence against women and other such issues in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil. USD 240,000 (Over three years)

• Woman’s Trust

  To support additional staff and increase the Trust’s capacity to provide client-led, people-centred mental health services to empower women affected by domestic violence and to help them recover and rebuild their lives after the trauma of abuse. The extra capacity will allow the Trust to influence the way mental health services are commissioned in the United Kingdom by raising the awareness of healthcare providers about the unmet mental health needs of victims and to create partnerships to enable healthcare providers to commission specialised mental health services. USD 58,089

• Womens’ Association Vukovar

  To improve the lives of women and children in Croatia who are affected by domestic violence and trafficking. The association has developed a comprehensive approach that includes the provision of a telephone service, free legal assistance, seminars/ workshops for partner organisations, a publicity campaign through the media and the dissemination of other information through its website. USD 169,863 (Over two years)

• Women’s Link Worldwide

  To support the Gender Equality programme of this international organisation based in Spain as it strives to promote migrant women’s rights within the context of European human rights. Activities include fact-finding investigations, promotion of gender-based asylum claims, litigation on behalf of victims of trafficking, and participation in regional networks dealing with migrant women’s rights. USD 120,004

• Women’s Refugee Commission

  • To ensure that provision and use of appropriate cooking fuels becomes an institutionalised and systematic part of humanitarian response to emergency and conflict situations. The worldwide Fuel and Firewood Initiative of this US-based organisation aims to: reduce the vulnerability of displaced/refugee women and children to violence as they collect firewood; reduce the negative health effects of indoor cooking smoke; and mitigate deforestation due to unsustainable firewood harvesting. USD 150,000
  • To protect the rights of the family, particularly those of undocumented, immigrant women whose parental rights are violated and sometimes terminated when they are detained or deported. The detention and asylum programme of the Commission seeks to improve rules and policies implemented by the US Department of Homeland Security to develop child welfare practices that are sensitive to the vulnerabilities and needs of this population. USD 126,500

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