Domestic violence and gender-based violence are still one of the social issues directly affecting the lives of women and children. In highland areas where access to support services is still limited, building support points right in the community is important.
Through Project 8 "Implementing gender equality and solving urgent issues for women and children", the Quang Tri Provincial Women's Union (Women's Union) has focused on building and consolidating the "Reliable Address" model to support and protect women and children who are victims or at risk of violence.
According to the Quang Tri Provincial Women's Union, building the "Reliable Address" model is one of the key contents of Project 8, aiming to create a safe support place, consulting, and connecting necessary services for women and children.
For effective implementation, the Provincial Women's Union has organized training conferences, guiding the development of plans and operation of models in localities. The training content focuses on knowledge of preventing and combating gender-based violence, skills to support victims, receive information and transfer support lines.
As a result, the Associations at all levels have built 54 "Reliable Addresses" in communes in the project implementation area 8. Models are placed in the community, associated with the participation of the Women's Union, local authorities and related forces.
To make the model operate effectively, the Provincial Women's Union and localities in the province have supported equipment for 54 reliable addresses, with a total budget of nearly 296 million VND.
Not only are they places to receive and support when incidents occur, "Reliable Addresses" also play a role in propaganda and prevention. The operating boards of reliable addresses organize communication sessions on domestic violence prevention, gender equality, helping people better understand the rights of women and children.
In the process of implementation, the Women's Unions at all levels have organized many activities to improve skills for officials in charge of models, and at the same time strengthened propaganda to change people's perceptions, not to consider domestic violence as a private matter in each household.
Quang Tri Provincial Women's Union said that "Reliable Address" models have contributed to raising community awareness in preventing domestic violence, supporting women and children to access sources of assistance when needed.
However, the Provincial Women's Union also assessed that maintaining models after being established still has certain difficulties, especially resources to ensure regular operations.
From simple houses and locations in the community, "Reliable Addresses" are becoming a fulcrum for women and children to have more places to seek support, protect legitimate rights, and contribute to building equal, progressive and happy families.
