Gender based violence and abuse has always existed in the history of the humanity, but during the last decade this problem has grown dangerously. The data on gender violence is disturbing; in the Gender Disparity Index Report Hungary occupies the 85th place. One Spanish woman is raped every day, more than 60 are murdered each year. Italian women are exposed to gender violence which is still perceived as culturally acceptable. Violence continues to be a problem in Poland and Romania, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse still prevails in the society. One of the goals of Anthropolis is to fight gender violence. This is why we decided to form the Strategic Partnership. After a careful selection process we decided that the entities who will be involved in the Strategic Partnerships are: Active Women Association (Poland), Associazione Agrado (Italy), Asociația de Tineri din Ardeal (Romania), Permacultura Cantabria(Spain), with Anthropolis Antropológiai Közhasznú Egyesület (Hungary) as an Applicant Organization. All the entities mentioned above will work together on achieving the project objectives: 1. To exchange best practices to counteract gender violence and abuse among adult women Each has their unique set of tools and knowledge developed for gender abuse counteracting and targeting the environment of their country which we seek to comprehend in order to be able to attend our service users better. 2. To obtain new tools and methodologies to counteract gender violence: Our strategic alliance will acquire new tools for the identification and diagnosis of abuse of power, and also for results dissemination in order to increase the visibility of the project. 3. To increase awareness about gender-based power abuse: We want to raise awareness level among adults of gender violence feminine victims such as the Romani women, disabled, LGTBQ, immigrants, refugees, elderly etc. 4. To strengthen alliances at the regional, national and European level with entities that fight to counteract gender violence and abuse. To be able to achieve the goals mentioned above, the Strategic Partnership will carry out the following activities: - Transnational Meetings: Kick Off meeting is Spain and Final Evaluation one in Romania. The purpose of those is, correspondingly: to review the work plan and distribute tasks and deadlines among participants and to carry out the final evaluation, having in mind a correct project closure. - 3 Participatory Visits: hosting organisations will be Associazione Agrado (Italy), AWA (Poland) and Anthropolis (Hungary); they have been designed to share best practices, knowledge and tools each of the organisations developed over the years working on counteracting gender related violence and abuse with other organisations. - Course in Spain for breaking the silence: fight against violence and abuse on women hosted by Permacultura Cantabria. This has an objective of further sharing and transferring best practices, knowledge and tools gained during Participatory Visits. Transnational meetings and Participatory Visits will be attended by 2 persons from each entity (Project and Dissemination Coordinators), who also will be joining the course in Spain; the activity in Spain, additionally, will be attended also by 1 adult trainer and 2 adult learners selected by each organisation. The participants involved in the project will improve their methodologies, broaden horizons, gain new abilities and tools in order to better approach their daily tasks regarding violence against women counteracting. They will also become more active as European citizens at local, national and international level. Other organisations, adult workers and adults will raise their consciousness level using tools and best practices which has been presented during the course. As to the Strategic Partnership itself, its members will improve their and their staff skills and will be able to implement the best practices and tools gained in their daily work, significantly raising the level of their services. The participating organisations should also act as multipliers.
Despite international and national-level legislation, initiatives, and the continuous fight, gender-based violence (GBV) is still a common human rights violation within the European societies and worldwide. Women and girls experience various forms of gender-based violence in a considerable number. The Covid-19 pandemic led to the increase of domestic/intimate partner violence than before. More cases were reported, and it has become crystal clear that more funding, attention and research are needed for financing support services, facilitating cooperation between institutions and for awareness-raising. The ‘Breaking the silence: fight violence and abuse against women’ was a two-year-long project with a three-month extension (September 2018 - November 2020), co-funded under the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. The project aimed to 1) to share good practices among involved partners, 2) to learn new tools and methodologies 3) to increase awareness on GBV in our societies, and 4) to strengthen alliances at regional, national and international level with entities that are fighting to counteract gender-based violence and abuse. We wanted to expand our knowledge on GBV and learn methodologies and tools so that we are better qualified and equipped to provide education, create projects on GBV, and answer the need of violence victims when they participate in our programmes services. The project was conducted by a selected consortium of partners working in the field of youth and/or adult non-formal education, and who have various experiences - from minor to being an expert - in combating gender-based violence. Our partnership consisted of five NGOs: Anthropolis Association from Hungary, Asociația de Tineri din Ardeal from Romania, Active Women Association from Poland, Associazione Agrado from Italy and Permacultura Cantabria from Spain. In addition to the project’s core partnership, a range of associated partners were directly contributed to the project by providing quality activities (workshops and field trips) to the mobilities’ participants. In order to achieve the objectives of the project, we organized two transnational meetings (a Kick-off meeting in Spain, and an online evaluation meeting). We had three participatory meetings between July 2018 and October 2019, which took place in Vinci (Italy), in Sosnowiec (Poland) then in Budapest (Hungary). During these visits, the partner organizations exchanged (shared and learned) good practices, tools already developed and used at each of the partner organizations on the issue of GBV. Also, we had field trips at various regional institutions (1/country: crisis centres, women shelters), where we had a valuable insight as to how the national/regional-level system supports victims of GBV (and victims of other crises). To ensure that project results, i.e. the new tools and methods, are communicated within the partners’ community (employees, volunteers), each partner organized an internal workshop by the end of the project. In addition to the partners’ capacity building, we had a dissemination plan to carry out with the twofold purpose of giving information on our project’s achievement and doing awareness-raising on the issues related to GBV to the broader public through our online community platforms. Due to the exchange of the broad range of methodologies, tools, knowledge on GBVWG, partner organisations (staff, volunteers) could significantly raise the level of their services: they implemented new practices, tools in their services, they developed/improved their methodologies, approaches with the broadened horizon and knowledge gained on GBV, they had the knowledge needed to approach those victims better potentially involved in our programmes, training, activities, and partners could improve their skills to carry out awareness-raising campaigns and spreading news related to GBV. On a local level, other organisations, professionals acted as multipliers of the project goals. They were involved in the project activities, either they learned tools, practices or provided workshops. Based on this project's experience, partners have started to initiate and implement new projects in the field of GBV to improve their capacities and equipment further to fight against GBV.