GNWS launches crowdfunding campaign to log women’s helplines in every country of the world
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.
