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Women who have experienced sexualised violence in conflict regions face difficulties to find assistance. With stress- and trauma- sensitive approaches, health professionals can prevent sexualised violence and re-traumatization. The Transnational Health Training Programme (THTP) focuses on improving access to stress- and trauma-sensitive health services. Since 2015, medica mondiale has implemented the first phase of the programme in Afghanistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In October 2018, medica mondiale expanded the programme to Kosovo and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

After 14 devastating years of civil war in Liberia, the level of sexualised and gender-based violence (S/GBV) in Liberia remains high. Survivors of S/GBV face a high risk of stigmatization, discouraging them from reporting their cases to authorities. Since 2005, the Reintegration and Recovery Programme (RRP) assists women and girls affected by S/GBV and their communities. The holistic approach includes psychosocial, health and legal services as well as income- generating activities for survivors and campaigns to sensitize state actors.

Many of the displaced women and girls in the Kurdish Autonomous Rgion in Northern Iraq have survived extreme violence. Thus, professionals and activists who offer support to survivors of gender-based violence are exposed to trauma dynamics on a day-to-day basis. The project focuses on the role and responsibility of organisations to care for the psychosocial wellbeing and stability of their staff, and to promote healthy workplace dynamics. Its goal is to enable the local women’s rights organisation to develop a context- and gender-specific staff care concept.

The organisation chart provides you with an overview on the working fields of medica mondiale. Status of: June 2020

Protecting women's rights, supporting female heroes!

From the contents:

• LOOKING BACK AT 2020: Women's rights during the pandemic (p.4)
• WHAT WE DO: Support for women affected by violence (p.10)
• HOW WE WORK: Our approaches (p.19)
• STATISTICS & FACTS: Project expenses (p.32) 

The COVID 19 pandemic has made systemic gender inequalities visible worldwide. The unjust distribution of often unpaid care work and the resulting additional burden as well as financial disadvantage for women is just one example. The enormous increase in sexualised and gender-specific violence during the pandemic is also an expression of already existing discriminatory gender relations in patriarchal societies.

At the same time, it is women in particular who are working to contain COVID-19 and support survivors of violence. Through their work in civil society organisations, but also their activities in life-sustaining professions and vital roles for their families, they make an existential contribution to meeting the challenges of the pandemic.

The upcoming German government is faced with the task of working with international partners to develop viable solutions for gender-responsive management of the pandemic and to find feminist responses to the escalating  sexualised violence  that are effective in the short and long term. So far, politics has hardly taken gender-specific effects of the crisis into account.

Find inspiration to strengthening your self-care practice to keep yourself and your activism passionate, strong and healthy.

Copyright: Ngadi Smart/medica mondiale

News about the evaluation report: Improvements in opportunities empower women in Kosovo
Improved livelihood opportunities for female and adolescent returnees and host community in Kosovo’s Dukagjini region

The project aimed at women and adolescent girls in Kosovo’s Dukagjini region, including returnees from Europe or other Kosovar regions, with the overall goal to improve their livelihood opportunities and thus contribute to the prevention of further migration. Findings of the final evaluation reflect that the involved women are empowered both economically and psychologically.