Supporting and Strengthening the Women's Resource Centres in Tajikistan

The Women’s Resource Centres (WRCs) project was established by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe to support the Government of Tajikistan in assisting the victims of domestic violence by providing free psycho-social and legal aid, empowering victims to become financially independent through vocational courses, and raising awareness of the public on all forms of gender-based violence. The Project runs thanks to the generous support of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Tajikistan.

In order to provide victims of domestic violence needed services and assistance, the Project engages Implementing Partners to operate Women’s Resource Centres across the country staffed by trained professionals in all four regions of Tajikistan, reaching some of the most remote and disadvantaged areas.

WRCs’ Legal and Psycho-social consultations provide victims of domestic violence legal redress and help them to confront trauma and rebuild their lives.

The lawyers provide free legal consultations and legal aid for victims of domestic violence, assisting them in access to justice, including with matters concerning protection orders, divorce, alimony, child custody/visitation, property, etc.

The psycho-social counsellors often help victims to regain confidence and self-esteem, and to prevent self-harm.

Legal and psycho-social consultations are provided as needed to best reach and assist clients, including via on-site consultations at the WRC office, via phone and online platforms, and via mobile visits to remote villages within the WRC’s service range.

To ensure better documentation and effective follow up of each and every case, the case management forms are being developed by POiD and used in each WRC.

Since 1 April 2020, four WRCs have provided 1,281 psycho-social and 1,585 legal support services to 597 (567 female, 30 male) clients.

As a result, 288 (281 women, 7 men) legal and 213 (208 women, 5 men) psycho-social cases have been positively resolved and many are still in process.

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Further, in order to economically empower potential and actual victims of domestic violence to reduce dependency and vulnerability, the Project organises vocational training courses in remote areas of targeted districts. The vocational courses help victims of DV to gain new practical skills and be able to engage in income generation activities and become independent from their family members.

The types of courses vary according to the local needs identified during the assessment of the demand among the beneficiaries and initial meetings with local government entities and include and is not limited to: bakery, sewing, embroidery, weaving, financial literacy and family budgeting, fruit and vegetable processing, computer literacy, canning or other skills for women in rural areas.

As a result, for the 18 months (01 April, 2020 to 30 September 2021) period, 44 different courses were organized in the remote villages by all four WRCs and 584 persons gained new professional skills.  Out of 584 persons, 155 graduates have been reported to make income as the result of gained skills during the vocational courses and become independent from their family members.

Finally, in order to increase public awareness on all forms of gender-based violence, the Project’s network of Women’s Resource Centres organize weekly community outreach workshops and seminars in each of their respective service ranges on aspects related to prevention of domestic violence and human trafficking, migration trends effecting women life, girls’ education, early engagement and marriage, women’s participation in public life, as well as access to equal opportunities.

All the activities of the project conducted by WRCs are carried out in close cooperation with local government structures such as Committee on Women and Family Affairs, Adult Training Centers, Police and Gender-Sensitive Police Units, Hospitals, Civil Registration Offices, Department of Education, Committee for Youth and Sports Affairs, local Executive Bodies of the target Jamoats[1], Religious Leaders as well as Community Leaders. Additionally, WRCs are active on newspaper, TV, social media and online platforms, providing information on domestic violence and available resources.

As a result, the WRCs conducted 208 awareness-raising events mostly in rural villages and directly reached out more than 4,613 (3,733 women, 880 men) community members.

[1] Administrative divisions, similar to communes or municipalities