In August 2021, Bulgarian Fund for Women launched the project “For Love without Violence: Prevention and protection from domestic violence through information campaign and materials in social networks and provision of services for victims and perpetrators of domestic violence”. The project is funded by the Ministry of Justice and is implemented in the period July – November 2021.
The initiative is a continuation of last year’s project of BFW, the project “National Information Campaign for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Support Services”, implemented in 2020 and again funded by the Ministry of Justice.
The long-term goals of this project are:
1. Better awareness of victims’ rights and measures against perpetrators of domestic violence and opportunities for support.
2. Recognition of the phenomenon of “domestic violence” and its various forms and increased public intolerance to its manifestations.
3. Prevention of domestic violence through a campaign and development of information materials and publications in social media.
4. Overcoming stereotypes and prejudices related to domestic violence.
The short-term goals of the project are:
1. Increasing the awareness and sensitivity of the society on the problems of domestic violence and providing accessible and systematized basic information on the topic by implementing a campaign on social networks and developing information materials.
2. Encouraging victims of domestic violence and perpetrators to seek specialized services and counselling for help and support.
3. Providing quality and accessible psychological and legal online services to persons who have survived or are in a situation of domestic violence, as well as to perpetrators of domestic violence, in order to support, reintegrate and prevent possible future suffering or violence.
Who is the project aimed at?
The project is aimed at victims of domestic violence, perpetrators of violence or those living in an environment of domestic violence, including witnesses. The other direct target group is young people under the age of 35, with a focus on young women who, under the influence of popular culture, internalize unrealistic images and messages that reinforce discrimination and violence against women. In this project we will focus and cover a group of people with hearing impairments who have even more limited access to information that allows them to prevent or directly protect against violence.
The project is expected to reach a minimum of 50 people through individual consultations and online events, and through a national information campaign to reach an audience of at least 500,000 people.
The third direct target group are perpetrators of domestic violence. Very often they do not recognize their actions as violent and normalize the violence, putting all family members at risk. It is envisaged that the project will try to cover at least 3 perpetrators of violence.
The indirect impact of the project will cover professionals involved in the implementation of the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence. The exchange of good practices and information is important for a coordinated approach to domestic violence. The community of survivors of domestic violence – neighbours, relatives, acquaintances, will be reached with messages to break the cycle of violence. Towards the general public, we strive to raise public awareness and sensitivity to the problems of domestic violence and create intolerance to its manifestations.
Planned project activities
The target groups will have direct access to participation in online meetings and / or individual online consultations, as well as to the communication campaign and information materials in the social networks and media that are part of it. In this way, the goal is to reach the set of direct and indirect target groups, including people in small and remote settlements, where access to specialized services related to the problem of domestic violence is limited.
The information campaign, which will be conducted within the project, will build on the results achieved by the previous project of Bulgarian Fund for Women and will ensure the sustainability of the communication messages and the already achieved effect. The campaign includes online and offline activities aimed at facilitating the access of victims and their relatives to information, as well as motivating and practical content for taking steps to report domestic violence; access to specialized (online) services for survivors of domestic violence; prevention of secondary victimization among women survivors of domestic violence; prevention of domestic violence among young people through accessible and understandable information materials; raising public awareness and overcoming stigma and prejudice on domestic violence.
The platform Love Errors created by BFW has become a serious source of information for girls and young women at risk, on how to recognize signs of violence. It has grown into a kind of support centre – through a series of webinars and individual consultations with lawyers and psychologists, we offered the audience practical help.
To build on this practice, in this project we envisage the creation of a series of educational videos that are accessible and clearly answer the most frequently asked questions by potential victims of domestic violence. Through video animation we will give short and informative tips, instructions, and useful information.
It is also planned to develop and disseminate information material (a card), aimed at encouraging victims of domestic violence to seek help, counselling, legal and psychological support. The card will be distributed in restaurants, public locations, universities, government institutions and in the services and community centres managed by organizations, partners of BFW throughout the country.
The project envisages the implementation of 3 online specialized meetings aimed at survivors or people in a situation of violence, accessible to the general public, led by various experts (lawyers, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, etc.) on topics, explaining the cycle of violence and response steps aimed at preventing, encouraging victims’ confidence, etc. The events will be promoted through the social networks and information channels of BFW and uploaded on the subpage in loveerrors.bg. In order to be as close as possible to the target groups, we also will provide a sign language broadcast for deaf communities, which will be provided access to share experiences and follow-up consultations, if necessary.
Providing accessible services (individual online legal and psychological consultations) for victims or perpetrators of domestic violence
This activity will provide an opportunity for individual consultations with specialists and experts and includes online support for at least 30 victims of domestic violence and / or perpetrators of domestic violence. The program will offer privacy and will be entirely online. It is a continuation of a successful series of online consultations that were implemented in 2020 with the support of the Ministry of Justice.
You can register for an individual online consultation with a psychologist or lawyer by filling out this online form. (in Bulgarian)
The project is implemented by Bulgarian Fund for Women under a grant agreement with registration № 93-00-243 / 02.08.2021, concluded with the Ministry of Justice.
