In November 2020, EHRA launched the ‘Access to comprehensive care for women using drugs in case of violence’ project aimed at increasing access to legal, psychosocial (including psychiatric) services and shelters for women who use drugs in case of violence.
The project is implemented in collaboration with the Alliance for Public Health as part of the Multi-country Project “Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” (aka #SoS_project) and funded through the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
On 10, 11 and 14 December 2020, the project held an online training on ‘Organising Care for Women who Use Drugs and are Victims of Gender-Based Violence’.
The training programme included the following topics:
Women who use drugs and women from other social groups in situations of gender-based violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence. Needs, problems, existing services.
Gaps in government services and NGO services for women who use drugs.
Provision of services for women who use drugs in situations of violence by organizations and harm reduction organizations.
Build partnerships with organizations working to provide services to women in situations of violence. Fragmented analysis of potential partners.
Safety issues for women who use drugs and female staff members assisting in situations of gender based violence/ intimate partner violence.
Thirty-seven participants registered for the training. During the three days the maximum number of participants was 18, and the minimum number was 10. Participants were from the following countries: Georgia, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine.
The experience of the participants in working with issues of women who use drugs and survivors of violence varied greatly: from impressive (e.g. Harm Reduction Network, Kyrgyzstan) to almost zero (e.g. ReGeneration, Serbia).
The next step in the project is to work with partner organizations through grants in 5 countries – Serbia, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. Activities in the countries will be as follows:
Documenting cases of violations of the rights of women who use drugs in case of violence; documenting their situation with access to psychosocial and legal services and shelters, crisis centres.
Advocacy, both at the level of decision makers and at the level of individual shelters, to change the rules and practices of shelters to accommodate women who use drugs in case of violence.
Train shelter staff to work with women who use drugs and collaborate with harm reduction programs.
Improve the quality of shelter services for women who use drugs and survivors of violence.
Also, recommendations on the provision of comprehensive services for women who use drugs and survivors of violence, including shelters/crisis centres, psychosocial and legal services, have already been initiated and will be developed in 2021 as part of the project.
We hope that the recommendations will be useful to country partners as well as to other organizations and groups seeking to improve access to comprehensive support for women who in case of violence.