Project Report
| Mar 18, 2015
Addressing Domestic Violence thus far
![Health check up for underserved women]()
Health check up for underserved women
"I grew up in an abusive household, and primarily because of this I didn’t know what it was to be in a normal relationship. At 19, I thought that I had finally escaped my abusive past and met a decent man. The first month seemed okay. It appeared to me that I was living in a bubble of indifference.
A few months into our marriage, things turned to violence. There was never an apology or any recognition of the abuse. We both just walked around as though it had never happened. Even worse, he always threatened to harm me if I ever tried to talk to my friends or family about what I was going through. Over the years, the abuse escalated emotionally, physically and sexually. I found the entire experience incredibly dehumanizing.
The greatest blessing was being able to finally access my passport which was in his parents' custody without his knowledge. This gave me the opportunity to escape after 6 long years of waiting. With them help of a few friends, I was finally able to escape and reached out to Maitri for counseling and legal support. Since then I have been able to rebuild my life and am proud of how far I have come and the woman I am today."
Everyday millions of women and girls experience violence. This abuse takes many forms including domestic violence. The burden is substantial.
Over the past few months Maitri has been making efforts to improve the status of women in our community markedly. With the help of four doctors from AMITY University, we have been able to work with underserved girls and women over the past one month. Much time has been devoted by them and the Maitri team to discuss social issues faced by women in the community and address their concerns of domestic violence.
In addition, Maitri has also been intervening through other prevention approaches including group vocational training, social communication, health check ups, community mobilization, livelihood strategies, girl child education. These target underlying risk factors for violence such as poverty, women's economic dependance on men, low education and inequitable norms for male and female behavior. More over, our programmes are moving from trying to achieve change in groups of individuals to trying to achieve change at a community level.
Even still, in many settings Maitri has learnt that women remain second class citizens and are discriminated against and made subservient to men. Even where women enjoy many freedoms, the fear and reality of male violence persists.
With increased recognition on how many women' men's and children's lives are affected by domestic violence and growing evidence on how to prevent the issue Maitri strives to continue to with our endeavors in this regard. Although the achievement of healthier lives for women, free from violence and discrimination is ambitious, it is central to an equitable sustainable development agenda and must be prioritized.
Further more, an important cause of gender inequality and rape culture is domestic violence. Though a mindset of not speaking of it openly prevails in our society, it continues to exist, hidden from plain sight because we think it is not a common occurrence. But when we want to build a society that is safe for women and equal in all aspects regardless of one's gender, we need to address this issue. Maitri calls for a greater action and an explicit commitment to the elimination of domestic violence
Thank you for supporting Maitri's efforts to prevent domestic violence against women in India this far. Your contribution has been key in helping us make a difference and we look forward to your sustained partnership to ensure that we can translate Maitri's commitments into meaningful change.
Today, starting at 9:00:01 EDT, GlobalGiving will be matching donations at 30% until 23:59:59 EDT until matching funds have run out. There will also be two $1,000 prizes awarded at 23:59:59 EDT on March 18th. A small support from your side can bring profound change in the lives of many women.
We have to build a better, more equal world through peace and non-violence. - Dalai Lama
![Addressing the concerns of women in the community]()
Addressing the concerns of women in the community
![Girl child education to prevent early marriage]()
Girl child education to prevent early marriage
![Group vocational training]()
Group vocational training
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