Flinders University’s Gender Consortium, which works extensively to foster gender equity programs throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific, is delighted that a new Peace House Shelter, providing emergency help for domestic violence and trafficking victims, has been completed in Can Tho, Vietnam.
This new women’s shelter is one of only three women’s shelters in Vietnam to be funded under the Government of Vietnam’s national budget. The other two shelters are based in the northern capital city of Hanoi, making the inclusion of a new facility in the southern city of Can Tho an especially valuable addition.
Approval and mobilisation of this new initiative has happened as a consequence of the Gender Consortium’s $2.1 million Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funded human resource capacity development project, to combat domestic violence and human trafficking (2014-2017). A cornerstone of the project was the action research led by Gender Consortium Associate, Dr Anuradha Mundkur, which identified domestic violence and human trafficking service and policy gaps.
The Gender Consortium says this latest development has been achieved through close work with its local project partners, the Centre for Women and Development, Vietnam Women’s Union (CWD, VWU) and their locally engaged staff who worked so hard achieve this important milestone for Vietnamese women.
Its announcement comes in the midst of the ’16 Days of Activism’, an international campaign that runs from 25 November to 10 December 2018 to focus action to end gender-based violence.
“Our team is passionate about offering this support, as gender-based violence has a huge impact on Vietnam’s social and economic development,” says Cara Ellickson, Director of Flinders University’s Gender Consortium.
Other achievements recorded through this project include creating two new social enterprises to support the Peace House Shelters, developing a new Undergraduate University Course on gender based violence by the Vietnam Women’s Academy, publishing Gender Based Violence Training Manuals for training courses across Vietnam, and upgraded database systems, risk assessment tools and safety planning processes for domestic violence and trafficking victims, successfully being implemented through the Peace House Shelters.
The Gender Consortium project has also supported the development of several highly effective communication campaigns advocating the prevention of gender based violence. The campaigns attracted strong traffic, with more than 150,000 views, 32,000 likes, 10,000 comments and almost 9000 shares.