Violence against women is pervasive throughout the world and approximately one in three of the world's women will experience violence at some point in their lives, with rates reaching 70 per cent in some countries.
The World Health Organization estimates that at least 20 percent of the world's women have been physically or sexually abused by a men. It is in view of this that Norway has constructed the only Women Crises Centre (WCC) in Oslo, Norway.
This is a regular place where battered women seek shelter and feel safe and secure. In an interview with its leader, Ms Inger-Lise W. Larsen, she explained that the centre was established 30 years ago and endeavors to create a safe place for its clients by providing confidential lodging facilities and a supportive living environment that allows for healing and recovery.
She recalled the idea for its set up flows from the fact that many of the women felt they needed something else than to go back home where they were experiencing the violence.
Ms Larsen stated that many of them had been living with violence and psychiatric problems since they were born and so they wanted to build something that could be a home for people for a longer period until they are able to find their feet.
According to her, the primary reason why women seek refuge at the WCC is to secure the safety of themselves and their children if any.
"Sometimes young children and teenage girls are also brought to the centre for safety. In many instances the threat of injury or death is so real that there is no other alternative but to seek refuge in the centre".
In all, the Center has 26 rooms for women and children. In 2007 it established a dormitory for girls suffering from unrelated violence.
She said majority of the girls are mostly victims from forced marriage or have the premonition that they will be forced to marry.
Girls can live at the centre for six to nine months and women live to two months and they can be on their own again. From 2008 to date, 319 women have lived at the centre and they brought 225 children, out of which 125 are under school age.
One out of five women who visit the WCC is sent there by the police while one out five also come by themselves.
"When they come here they are usually traumatized and confused so the first thing is to give them a room, talk to them and try to find out what they want and what they expect from the centre."
However, she said it's not enough for a woman to visit the centre to claim she has been battered; facts she presents need to be substantiated, sometimes by a medical report from the police.
The leader said there are about fifteen different ways of solving issues for these battered women. One of these is particularly how they can survive economically which takes quite some time because by then they are reorganizing and don't really know who they are.
The children are not left out. They are also taken through several processes in order to find out things from their perspectives.
"We do this because we know that many of them don't know where they are. Sometimes their mothers have to run in a hurry so they don't take the time to tell them where they are going. They equally experienced violence since they know when it happens, even when in another room they hear all. The children have good friendships here because they get the opportunity to talk about their experiences that have been a secret all these years, the leader explained.
Since one in four people living in Norway is of a different nationality, the WCC attends to all. In fact, 88% of people who lived at the centre in 2008 were not Norwegians.
From January this year until now about 850 women have used the centre's counseling service. Unfortunately, since some women go back to the same relationships for fear of being lonely or not being able to manage on their own, the Center makes the effort to make them economically viable.
Ms. Larsen said "We also endeavor to provide practical alternatives for life after the centre and follow up with clients who have left to ensure their continued safety and well being."
Since the law also gives some fathers the right to see their children they get into contact with some of the women. This can sometimes become an obstacle.
She stated, "The only obstacle is that some fathers still have the right to see the children. It is always the mother that has to move, men are always in there".
She refuted claims by some sects of religion that enforce wife battering and other forms of violence against women, stressing that religion is no excuse.
Some people hide behind the Quran and the Bible to perpetrate violence and to force people into marriage.
Nonetheless, she was hopeful the initiative by heads of various religious groups in Norway to launch a campaign on violence against women soon will greatly contribute to stop such violence. Also by January 2010, there will be a law to back the establishment of crises centers in all districts in Oslo.
To Ms Larsen, life is all about working to ensure the welfare of vulnerable women although it comes with risks of threat and stigmatization.
"It is unfortunate that sometimes people look upon us here as a group of whores and I the big Mama, but I have chosen to do what I am doing and I enjoy it."
Her observation is that it is more dangerous to be a woman and be battered than for a man. She said one of four women is threatened or battered by a man, while one out the ten is battered with weapons and banging of their heads with hard objects, against one of forty men who say he has been battered.
Not many men have been handled at the centre. She stated that wife battering and other harmful forms of violence against women are prevalent in all culture, religion, nationality and age.
"I think it's insecure men who do not know how to act who resort to wife battering."
She emphasized that wife battering is a cross gender issue and not only a women's issue but one
that requires that men also take a stand.
In comparison, more cases of abuse are reported each year to the DOVVSU, Ghana's only refuge for domestic crimes. DOVVSU however has offices in the ten regions of Ghana.
A quarterly report released by the Accra office of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, (DOVVSU) showed for the first quarter of this year (January -March) a total of 1,332 cases were handled.
Compared to a total of 1,256 cases reported in 2008, the figure showed an increase of 76 cases.Women continue to dominate as victims of domestic violence, even though more men try to put bashfulness aside and report cases of their wives beating them.
Assault cases ranked high with a figure of 584 as at the end of March this year. It also ranked high in 2008 with 552.
Perhaps, the only replica of the WCC in Oslo in Ghana is the shelter run by The Ark Foundation, Ghana, an advocacy-based human rights organization. Women seek refuge there when battered and when referred from other agencies including DOVVSU, the Commission on Human Rights and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Ghana).
Beneficiaries of the shelter have included battered women, spousal abuse survivors, women fleeing from harmful traditional / religious practices such as early or forced marriage, survivors of sexual assault - rape, defilement and incest.
Through the help of NGOs such as the Women's Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) the DOVVSU has twelve stations in all of Ghana. On the International Women's Day, March 8, 2009, The Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) called for greater accountability and political commitment from government and public institutions to prevent and punish all forms of violence against women in practice, and not just in words.
It stressed that violence against women and girls impairs the realization of their basic rights as human beings and as citizens of Ghana for whom rights are guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution to be inalienable and indivisible.
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