The Global Network of Women’s Shelters launches Lila.help: a global directory of support services for people experiencing gender-based violence. 

After a year of IT development, gathering helpline and shelter information, and preparation the time has come!

On April 6th, the Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS) is launching Lila.help their global directory of support services for people fleeing from domestic and sexual violence. Lila.help is easily accessible for everyone – a survivor, family or friends, service providers, embassy or tourism staff, or anyone looking to find support. Join us for our official launch with our funder, UN Women.

Register via Lila.help launch April 6 8AM EDT

 

Help us become even better: Donate now!

By donating you enable us to:

• Dig deeper: help us identify and support the available shelters and NGOs in every country and territory in the world
• Provide hyper-local support: besides the organization functioning at the national level, we want every regional shelter and local service provider to be found in our directory
• Make our website more user friendly: e.g. by providing specialized search (search option for wheelchair accessible shelters, or services where they speak a certain language, shelters that accept pets, etc.)

Check out our animated video about Lila.help. For more information visit Lila.help

Want to stay updated about our progress? Subscribe to our announcement list 

Lila.help is the first global website with a complete, accurate, and reliable listing of helplines and shelters in every country, to quickly become one of the linked-to webpages in the anti-violence against women sector. We are calling on organisations to join us!

What is Lila.help?

Lila.help is a global website where everybody, victims of gender-based violence (including domestic and sexual violence), supporting family, friends and professionals can easily find trustworthy direct help information of every country in the world. Every helpline or organization on Lila.help is safe, will provide a listening ear, understands what victims need, is part of a broader crisis-help network, and can answer your questions or call for help.

I am convinced, what do I do?

You can read the manual of filling in the lila.help directory by following this link.

After that you can add your organization by following this link.

Thank you for joining!

The Global Helplines Project webinar on CSW65 went successfully.  Great thanks to moderator, speakers, and audience to make this webinar inspiring and wonderful.  We received great feedback from our audience.  We are sorry that you missed our CSW65 webinar on Global Helplines Project: Lila.Help.  No worries, we heard you.  So here’s the link to recap of our wonderful webinar.

 

Join Worldwide Women’s Helplines Project: A number to call wherever you are, and know where we are at now.

 

Help Us

• Share information on organizations that focused on direct help for victims of gender-based violence in your country;
• Help us create them in countries where they don’t exist, get in touch via info@gnws.org; and
• Spread the word of Lila.Help or donate via: http://bit.ly/lilahelp

 

Learn More

(more…)

 

The Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS) has launched a fundraising campaign on the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform to raise money for our Women’s Helplines Project.

The vision of the project is for women and children to be safe wherever they are. As a concrete first step, we aim to create a database and website with easily accessible information on trustworthy women’s helplines in every country of the world.

Such a resource does not exist yet. And in some parts of the world there are no women’s helplines. We want this to change.

This initiative could not have come at a more urgent time. The impact of COVID-19 on women and girls is staggering. According to UN Women there has been an intensification of intimate partner violence: an estimated 243 million women and girls have been affected in the past 12 months.

In lockdown, millions of vulnerable women are confined to their homes with abusive partners. Official figures show a 25 to 50 percent increase in reported cases of domestic violence during the pandemic.

Now more than ever, victims of sexual and domestic violence need discreet access to helplines, advice, and other services. Yet over a quarter of countries worldwide do not have helplines.

The goals of the Worldwide Women’s Helplines Project are to (1) create a website with a complete and certified database of existing national helplines, and (2) campaign to create trustworthy helplines in countries where none exist.

To do this, we need funding to pay for salaries, equipment, communications, travel, translation services, and other costs.

Please help support our GoFundMe by making a donation and sharing this information with people in your networks. Our goal is to raise US$90,000 (€75,000). With every US$15,000 we can fund a regional network for one year to coordinate and support the project in their region.

Together we can build a safe and secure website for phone numbers and other resources, so that women can reach out for assistance, wherever they are in the world.

Previous Webinars

Missed an earlier webinar? Watch previous GNWS webinars on COVID-19 by clicking the links below.

02 September 2020: Data & Shelter Management During Times of Crisis

15 July 2020: Heading Off the Risk of Exploitation

01 July 2020: Heading Off the Risk of Exploitation

17 June 2020: The Impact of Reopening Communities on Supportive Services

03 June 2020: The Impact of Reopening Communities on Supportive Services

20 May 2020: Updates from Around the Globe

06 May 2020: Fundraising to Keep Shelter Services Going During a Public Health Crisis

29 April 2020: Supporting Women at a Distance During COVID-19: Updates from Australia and New Zealand

22 April 2020: Serving Survivors with COVID-19

15 April 2020: Using Technology to Support Victims II

08 April 2020: Report – Using Technology to Support Victims

01 April 2020: Report – Policy Prospectives on Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence During The Outbreak

25 March 2020: Planning, Preparation and Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

Every GNWS webinar is recorded and sent to all registrants afterward. If you can’t make a webinar, we will still make sure you receive the information!

GNWS Women’s Helplines Project

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we know victims of domestic violence are on ‘lockdown’ at home with abusive partners due to stay home orders from their governments. Countries around the globe are reporting escalation of domestic violence and increased Google searches for help for domestic violence; abusive individuals are using the COVID-19 pandemic as another means to control and abuse. Even if a victim is unable to leave their home at this time, domestic violence and sexual violence services can provide essential support to help the victim remain safe.

Direct help is essential for victims of domestic and sexual violence and a helpline is one of the most important ways of ensuring victims can find help and support. To support all victims during this unique time and beyond, GNWS is collecting the national helpline for every country so victims and their friends and family have a place to find accurate support. Even if your country doesn’t have a national helpline, we want to know! In response to the pandemic, we are also asking about text, chat, and email helplines.

The included map shows countries we have received information from. Those in purple currently have a national helpline, those in red do not. Click the map to go to GNWS.org for a larger image and more information. Please take a few minutes to complete this brief form so we can continue to update our list of helplines. If you have already completed the form, thank you so much. Your information is greatly appreciated!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3ykdy9kjBqce58cGvFmpKv6DHiblZNnnWH6m0vmoqcAb67A/viewform

Not subscribed to the GNWS Announcements Listserv? Click the link below to subscribe NOW!
https://lists.gnws.org/lists/subscribe/announcement

We want to make sure facilitation with survivors is engaging, easily understood, and effective. What are some recommended tools or strategies to think through when deciding on platforms or applications to engage with survivors?

Here are some links on mobile advocacy – https://www.techsafety.org/resources-agencyuse/cell-phone-bestpractices and https://www.techsafety.org/resources-agencyuse/mobilecomputing-bestpractices

Needed: National Helpline Information

Is your country grey on this worldmap? That means we do not have information about the women’s helplines in your country (we even like to know if there is none). Help us and fill out this google form: questionnaire national helplines domestic and sexual violence

We use this information to create a database and a global website lila.help to inform women, family and professionals about trustworthy helplines in every country of the world for victims of domestic and sexual violence.

More info on tab Women’s Helplines

GNWS WOMEN’S HELPLINES PROJECT

There is currently no comprehensive global list of helplines for victims of domestic and sexual violence. Over 20% of countries do not even have a women’s helpline

HELP US

• build a website of accurate, safe and vetted women’s helpline information from every country in the world.
• organize international and national strategies to create, support and secure women’s helplines and crisis help in every country of the world.

LEARN MORE at CSW64 New York
DATE: 10 March
TIME: 2:30-4pm
VENUE: 4 W 43rd Street ROOM: Social Hall

Help us organize a global website with helpline information of every country in the world. Help us to organize international and national strategies to create, support and secure women’s helplines and crisishelp in every country of the world.

Creating Worldwide Women’s Safety

The Women’s Helplines Project

The Global Network of Women’s Shelters wants women and children to be safe in every country of the world. Direct help is essential for victims of domestic and sexual violence. A women’s helpline is one of the most important ways of enabling victims to find help and support.

If a woman needs help, what number do you want to give her?

Currently across the globe

• There is NO respected global website that lists accurate, vetted, safe resources for victims of domestic and sexual violence in every country across the world.
• There is no global organization responsible for collecting and constantly updating reliable and accurate helpline information on every continent.
• Over 20% of the countries worldwide do not provide women’s helplines

Help us

1. organize a global website where everybody, victims of domestic and sexual violence, supporting family/friends and professionals, can easily find trustworthy women’s helpline information of every country in the world.
2. organize international and national strategies to create, support and secure women’s helplines and crisis help in every country of the world.

How can you help?

• PROVIDE INFORMATION about women’s helplines for victims of domestic or sexual violence in your country. Even if there is none, it is important information for us! Fill out this form
• DONATE and help us to create women’s helplines in countries where they are missing and to collect and publish worldwide data about the importance of trustworthy women’s helplines. Every contribution is welcome! Donate button at this website: see Womens Helplines.