This was the final of a series of meetings, the purpose of which was to select measures to support women who have experienced intimate partner violence.
At the beginning of the meeting, Stanimira Hadjimitova, director of the Center for Sustainable Communities Development, reminded the participants of the concept of economic empowerment of women as a means of leaving an abusive relationship. She also presented what has been done so far within the WEGO3 project and the proposed measures in the previous discussions. You can see everything about the measures here: https://cscd-bg.org/en/projects/proekt-wego-3/special-measures-to-support-women-survivors-of-domestic-violence-were-discussed-in-a-series-of-online-meetings
A natural consequence of these meetings was the creation of an initiative to start a social enterprise by women who have survived domestic violence. The hard work of the expert Diana Georgieva together with the "Center Dinamika" Association and several young women from the target group led to the successful launch of the hourly childcare agency "Veselushko22".
This happened after a series of trainings and nearly 10 months of hard work by stakeholders. Mrs. Georgieva also emphasized the diligent work of the organizations participating in the Territorial Protocol for the support of women who have experienced intimate partner violence which was created within the WEGO2 project.
Its members are institutions, organizations and companies from the Ruse region. In 2022 two other key stakeholders joined the initiative. You can see who they are here: https://cscd-bg.org/en/projects/proekt-wego-3/citub-1-ruse-joins-the-territorial-protocol-in-support-of-women-who-have-experienced-violence
An active participant during the final meeting was also Mrs. Deana Dimova, director of the “Center Dinamika” Association who expressed her pride and satisfaction with the initiative of the clients of the AVC. She once again highlighted the long journey they have come from leaving abusive relationships to becoming full-fledged young ladies. The association is a long-standing partner of the Center for Sustainable Communities Development and a participant not only in this, but also in the previous two editions of the WEGO project.
“Center Dinamika” also works to provide social housing for victims of domestic violence. Currently, victims can stay there for up to 2 years and live with their children by paying a nominal rent.
Other active participants in the project, namely Association NAYA, also took part in the discussion. They shared their experience of the partnerships of the AVC situated in Targovishte with representatives of the health, social and educational spheres, as well as of their "White Ribbon" initiative, with which they engage men and boys and make them stand in solidarity with violence against women. The Association also actively works with business companies. One of their partners is Avon - the company finances the organization's mobile teams to work in the field in more remote settlements in the Targovishte region. Another long-standing partner in the field is Mebel Stil company.
In addition to representatives of the AVCs the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also took part in the meeting. Teodora Nikolova – a representative of IOM shared interesting practices from her work with migrant women and expressed her willingness to adapt some of the good practices from the WEGO project in her work with foreign women who experience difficulties in the labor market in Bulgaria.
Representatives of the institutions in the person of Nikolay Dimitrov from the "Regional Employment Service" Plovdiv Directorate took an attitude. The expert highly appreciated the work done so far and shared the institutional experience in working with inactive groups, as well as the special function of psychologists and case managers.