The Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) would like to inform harm reduction organizations, as well as organizations that work with women experiencing violence, about the possibility of funding for activities aimed at improving access to services for women who use drugs experiencing violence. The purpose of the grants is to strengthen or build partnerships between harm reduction programs and shelters / crisis centers (further – shelters[1]), as well as providers of psychosocial (including psychiatric) and legal services. The partnerships will improve the system of comprehensive support for women who use drugs experiencing gender-based / intimate partner violence (hereinafter – violence), which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 epidemic in the EECA region.
Assistance is provided by the EHRA Secretariat within the project “Access to comprehensive care for women who use drugs in case of violence” funded through the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, received in addition to the multicountry project “Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region” (aka # SoS_project), implemented by the Alliance for Public Health and partners in 14 countries of the Central-Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA) region: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
Within this project EHRA aims to improve access for women who use drugs and experience violence to shelters, psychosocial (including psychiatric) and legal support, which have become even more relevant in connection to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Activities of the project:
- Develop recommendations on referring women who use drugs experiencing violence and human rights violations, for getting legal and psychosocial (including psychiatric) support and temporary shelter.
- Carry out a two-day on-line training for harm reduction service organizations on building systems of referral to provide psychosocial (including psychiatric) support, shelter and legal support to women who use drugs experiencing violence and human rights violations.
- Provide 5 small grants to NGOs in 5 countries on building systems of referring women who use drugs experiencing violence and human rights violations to shelters, legal and psychosocial (including psychiatric) support within harm reduction projects.
- Share experience regionally on best practices.
THEMATIC PRIORITIES
The grants will focus on the following priorities:
- Improving access to services for women who use drugs in case of violence – places of temporary stay (shelters), psychosocial (including psychiatric) services, legal (including paralegals, social workers, lawyers) support;
- Improvement of services to women experiencing gender-based or intimate partner violence provided of existing institutions in a city/ country so that such support is available to women who use drugs;
- Improvement of the system to support women experiencing violence, including in connection to the limitations and needs caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.
POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES
You can offer your own activities, below are only examples:
- Analysis of existing services available to women who use drugs experiencing violence; to what extent they do / do not respond to the needs;
- Analysis of the legal environment and obstacles in practice that prevent women who use drugs from receiving support in case of rights violations or gender-based violence;
- Analysis of additional problems in connection to the COVID-19 epidemic; what temporary decisions on organizing access to help can be made;
- Developing and advocating for the adoption of changes in existing guidelines, regulations of service centers for women experiencing violence, allowing also women who use drugs to benefit from such support;
- Building effective collaboration and referral between providers of various psychosocial services for women who use drugs and women experiencing violence;
- Organization of joint piloting of psychosocial and legal services for women on the basis of existing harm reduction centers and/ or centers for women experiencing violence;
- Educating psychosocial service providers about the needs of women who use drugs experiencing violence, the specifics of providing psychosocial / psychiatric / psychological services and legal aid, and how best to address their needs together;
- Research / monitoring by the community on the types of violence against women who use drugs (psychological, economic, physical, sexual) and presenting results to the general public, especially to decision-makers;
- Incorporation of data on violence against women who use drugs in shadow / alternative reports of UN treaty bodies such as CEDAW;
- Map of available services and dissemination of information for women who use drugs experience violence – safety plans, contacts of help centers.
A mandatory activity for each grant will be documenting cases of violation of the rights of women drug users experiencing gender-based violence/ intimate partner violence, analyzing the need for support and barriers to accessing such support, or describing effective comprehensive support practices.
Each grantee will have to document 3 cases involving women drug users experiencing violence. These can be personal cases or cases when it was possible / not possible to build partnerships with service providers. The selection of specific cases for documentation will be carried out jointly with the EHRA.
TIMELINE
- Call for applications announced – November 23, 2020;
- Two-day online training* – in the period from 2 to 18 December 2020, the dates of the training will be specified;
- Application deadline – December 6, 2020;
- Selection of granters, negotiations and signing of contracts – December 7-31, 2020;
- Implementation of grants – January 1 – May 31, 2021;
- Final reports – June 15, 2021.
*The training will be conducted for a wider audience on the needs of women who use drugs experiencing violence and the possibilities of improving access to services for them. The training may be divided into several sessions over two weeks.
LANGUAGES: Russian and English
REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS
- Organization is a registered legal entity in one of the 14 countries of the project (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan);
- Practical experience of providing services to women who use drugs experiencing violence or rights violations. An application can also be submitted from an advocacy group or community group representing women who use drugs in collaboration with the service organization;
- Understanding the needs of women who use drugs experiencing violence and human rights violations for psychosocial and legal support in relation to the COVID-19 epidemic and opportunities to improve access to comprehensive care;
- Due to the fact that the grant period is only 5 months and the funding is not large, we ask the participants to critically assess their ability to influence access to services for women who use drugs experiencing violence. It is important that the applicant is already working on issues related to women who use drugs and violence and the grant would strengthen these activities.
BUDGET
The total budget for one grant is US $ 8,400. 5 organizations will be selected for funding, each for a period of 5 months: January 1 – May 31, 2021. Only one organization from a country can receive a grant, so that 5 grantees come from 5 countries.
The grant of US $ 8,400 includes the following costs:
- Employee salaries (35%) – $ 2.940
- External consultants (fixed-term contracts) (45%) – $ 3.780
- Meeting expenses, local travel expenses (10%) – $ 840
- Administrative expenses: office, supplies, communication expenses, etc. / (10%) – $ 840.
Attached to the grant announcement, you will find an Excel file with a table for preparing the budget. It must be completed and attached to the package of documents when applying for a grant (Appendix 1).
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
To apply, please, send the following documents by December 6, 2020, 11:59 pm CET to m.sketre@harmreductioneurasia.org:
- A completed application form signed by the director of the organization or the responsible person;
- Annex 1 – budget for US $ 8,400;
- Annex 2 – a copy of the organization’s registration document.
Applicants who have submitted an incomplete package of documents will not be considered!
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The submitted applications will be evaluated by a selection committee consisting of the EHRA Secretariat and recruited experts on working with women who use drugs experiencing violence. The following criteria will be used to evaluate applications (the maximum possible number of points is 100):
- Experience with women who use drugs and violence (30);
- Understanding needs and problems (30);
- A clear and achievable goal, objectives and activities of the grant (30);
- Realistic and reasonable budget (10).
[1] By the word “Shelter” EHRA means any institution that can serve as a shelter for a woman who uses drugs in case of violence – crisis center, rehabilitation – depending on the situation in a particular area/ city.