SAPDA, Institut KAPAL Perempuan and EU launch services to prevent violence against women and people with disabilities
SAPDA, Institut KAPAL Perempuan and EU launch services to prevent violence against women and people with disabilities
Thousands of women who experienced gender-based and disability-based violence can now get counselling and legal assistance online from women’s rights groups.
The Advocacy Center for Disability, Women and Children Foundation (SAPDA), in collaboration with Institut KAPAL Perempuan, launched new Legal and Psychological Counselling Services at Rumah Cakap Bermartabat and the online complaint service Halo KAPAL Perempuan. These services were made possible through the Active Citizens Building Solidarity and Resilience in Response to COVID-19 (ACTION) project funded by the European Union (EU).
"Women and people with disabilities are one of the groups that have experienced a decline in income and loss of income sources due to public activity restrictions in order to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission,” Nurul Saadah Andriani, Director of SAPDA, said during the online launch. “This condition forced them to lose their position in the family and put them at risk to face domestic violence,” Nurul added.
The virtual launch event also disseminated the Guidelines for Special and Intensive Protection for Women with Disabilities during the Pandemic of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection. It aimed at enhancing the collaboration between government and non-government stakeholders and provided room to discuss the prevention and management of violence against vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around 300,000 Indonesian women experienced violence in 2020, according to the Annual Note 2021 of the National Women's Commission. Almost eighty percent of these incidents happened within the household environment, with 0.03 percent affecting women living with disabilities.
“Violence against women and people with disabilities is not always limited to visible physical violence. They can also be depressed when experiencing indirect violence in the form of neglect from families, unequal position among other family members, or when their opinion becomes unheard,” Nurul explained.
“Under normal circumstances, it has already been difficult for women victims of violence to report the cases, not to mention during the pandemic. Complaint services that are easily accessed by women and people with disabilities are important during this time in order to help them to access justice during the pandemic. The 'Halo KAPAL Perempuan' service uses WhatsApp to make it easier for women and people with disabilities to submit their complaints. They can send a text message or make a call to the Service Operator via number +62-812-8088-5525. The Service Operator will immediately forward the complaint to the Technical Implementation Unit for the Protection of Women and Children, which is part of the Department of Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning,” Yusnaningsih Kasim, ACTION Project Coordinator for Institut KAPAL Perempuan explained.
“The European Union has joined the #16DaysOfActivism global campaign to end gender-based violence. This virtual launch event is a concrete action in this campaign to prevent and address violence against women and girls,” H.E. Vincent Piket, EU Ambassador to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, said. “The social and economic impacts of the pandemic are disproportionately pushing women and girls into poverty, and the risk of violence against them is rising,” Ambassador Piket added.
“In the efforts to prevent and response to gender-based violence, the EU is proud to support the development of the new Legal and Psychological Counselling Services at Rumah Cakap Bermartabat and the online complaint service Halo KAPAL Perempuan through the ACTION project funded by the EU. This is an excellent service that is easily accessed by women victims of violence in order to facilitate access to justice. Key for the EU is that our projects produce direct benefits for the citizens. The ACTION project has benefitted 10,884 direct beneficiaries from food package distribution, access to teleconsultation and home visit services for vulnerable and high-risk groups, hygiene kits and hand washing stations. This project has also offered intensive business coaching for 98 small and medium-sized enterprises to grow their business, and has supported 215 small-scale producers and farmers to access to new urban markets and new sources of income. This will improve sustainable livelihoods and bring concrete benefits to 15,000 rural and urban poor in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi,” he added.
The virtual launch welcomed 235 participants from the Indonesian Ministries of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Health, and Social Affairs, the National Commission on Violence against Women, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, the Witness and Victim Protection Agency, COVID-19 Task Forces, local governments such as the Offices of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection of Yogyakarta, DKI Jakarta and Makassar, the Service Provider Forum, the Indonesian Association of Women with Disabilities (HWDI), the women's organisation Rifka Annisa and parents of families with persons with disabilities.
SAPDA and Institut KAPAL Perempuan work in the ACTION project together with the international NGO Hivos, the Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI), the Association for Advancement of Small Business (PUPUK), and Perkumpulan Pamflet Generasi (PAMFLET) in five provinces in Indonesia: DKI Jakarta, South Sulawesi, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and Yogyakarta.
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About the European Union (EU)
The European Union (EU) is the economic and political union of 27 member states with a population of 470 million. Together, the EU has built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development while maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedom. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the goals of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. The EU is the world's largest trading bloc, and the world's largest source and destination of foreign direct investment. Collectively, the EU and its Member States are the largest donors of Official Development Assistance (ODA), providing more than half of ODA globally. The 27 member states of the EU (in protocol order) are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.
For more information about the EU and its relations and cooperation with Indonesia, access:
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About EU’s coronavirus response in Indonesia
To support partner countries in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, the EU has launched the “Team Europe” approach. The objective of the Team Europe approach is to combine resources from the EU, its Member States and European financial institutions. Team Europe mobilised €38.5 billion for fighting COVID globally. Within this amount, Team Europe has mobilised around €200 million (IDR 3.5 trillion) in grants and loans to support Indonesia. €6 million (IDR 108.5 billion) in grants are dedicated to support civil society organisations to address the health and socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia. Team Europe is investing over €3 billion to help secure 1.8 billion doses of vaccines for 92 low and middle-income countries. Indonesia is one of the beneficiary countries. More info: https://bit.ly/TeamEuropeIndonesia
About ACTION project
The “Active Citizens Building Solidarity and Resilience in Response to COVID-19 (ACTION)” project is implemented by Hivos and five local partners, namely Institut KAPAL Perempuan, CISDI, PAMFLET Generasi, PUPUK and SAPDA. The project, funded by the European Union, aims at increasing the participation of civil society organisations in preventing and mitigating the risks caused by the COVID-19 crisis and ensuring that vulnerable and marginalised groups in Indonesia have equal access to social and economic recovery programmes. This two-year project is implemented in 15 sub-districts and 40 villages in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi in two phases. The first phase will focus on the initial response to the pandemic, while the second phase will help to mitigate the social and economic impacts. Women, people with disabilities (PWD), elderly, youth, SME entrepreneurs, and CSOs will directly benefit from the project.
About the ACTION project consortium:
Hivos:
Hivos is an international organisation that seeks new solutions to persistent global issues. With smart programs in the right places, we oppose discrimination, inequality, abuse of power and the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources. Our primary focus is achieving structural change. This is why we cooperate with innovative businesses, citizens and their organisations. We share a dream with them of sustainable economies and inclusive societies. For more information, please visit: https://hivos.org/
Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI):
CISDI is a civil society organization that supports the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through health development and involvement of youth in health development. CISDI conducts a study of issues based on experience in managing primary healthcare reinforcement programs in suburban areas as well as outermost, frontier, and the least developed areas, research and analysis of health policies, social change campaigns, and its involvement in health diplomacy at the national and international levels. For more information, please visit: https://cisdi.org/
Alternative Education Circle for Women (KAPAL Perempuan):
The establishment of KAPAL Perempuan is to build women and social movements that are capable of realizing social justice, gender equality and justice as well as peace in the public and private sphere. KAPAL focuses on strengthening women's leadership through feminist critical education, organizing and evidence-based advocacy, especially for women at the grassroots. For more information, please visit: https://kapalperempuan.org/
PAMFLET:
Pamflet is a human rights based organisation founded and organised by young people. We are focusing on the youth movement, as well as encouraging new initiatives for change in social and cultural areas, especially related to human rights issues, politics and democracy, and gender and sexual diversity. We support the youth movement in Indonesia and manage the knowledge of youth through developing centers of information, documentation and organising capacity building for young people. For more information, please visit: https://pamflet.or.id/
The Association for Advancement of Small Business (PUPUK):
PUPUK was established from initiation program of Small Industries Advancement (PIK) - West Java Chamber of Commerce (KADIN Jawa Barat), and the initiatives of three professional groups of Entrepreneurs, Academics, and Economic Activist began in 1979 in cooperation with a German institution, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung (FNSt). In 1988 declared independently with the goals to expand the region scope and more comprehensive achievements and institutionalized into PUPUK, and was legalized as an Association. PUPUK provides technical assistance to empower small businesses and strengthen the ecosystem to stimulate new strong entrepreneurs in facing economic competition. For more information, please visit: https://www.pupuk.or.id/
Advocacy Center for Disability, Women and Children (SAPDA):
SAPDA Foundation, stands for Advocacy Center for Disability, Women and Children, based in Yogyakarta, and established in July, 2005, is a non- governmental organization (NGO) with a vision of "the struggle to bring about change, justice, freedom, welfare & equality to fulfil and protect the rights of women, persons with disabilities and children in an inclusive society on the basis of equal human rights. For more information, please visit: http://sapdajogja.org/