As part of the project “Safe Zone” conducted by Women’s Room – Centre for Sexual Rights (Zagreb) and its partner organizations S.O.S. – Counseling, Empowerment, Collaboration (Virovitica), Centre for Women Adela (Sisak) and Centre for Support and Development of Civil Society “Delfin” (Pakrac), a two-day follow-up meeting was held from 22 to 23 April, 2014 in Višnjica.
The meeting gave a brief overview of the project and presented the results achieved in the last two years. Antonija Hojt Ilić and Maja Vukmanić Rajter from Women’s Room presented several notable achievements. They also pointed out excellent cooperation and networking between similar organisations of civil society and local actors who provide social services for victims of gender-based violence in the areas of special state concern, as result of which eight Memorandums of Cooperation were signed, and an informal network was established. Several activities aimed at strengthening the capacity and quality of work were conducted for organizations which daily deal with women victims of violence. The development and implementation of minimal standards in the activities of organizations, which provide direct help and support for women victims of violence, as well as launching of web site www.sigurnomjesto.hr, were highlighted as the backbone of the project. The web site provides quick and easy access to all information for women victims of violence through a highly functional search engine. It also contains all the necessary information on how to recognize and report violence, how to get out of violence, and information on rights and laws.
Individuals and organizations that helped the project are: the President of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Josipović, the Croatian Rugby Federation, Zagreb Rugby Federation, Croatia Men’s National Handball Team, and many celebrities from the world of theatre, film, music and politics.
Although the “Safe Zone” project is coming to its end, the project team achieved significant results and initiated long-term changes that still require full attention of relevant actors in order to fight the violence against women.
