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Spotlight Initiative in Timor Leste worked with the Ministry of Health, community health providers, local NGOs, the police, and the Ministry of Social Solidarity to develop safe spaces for survivors of VAWG. These safe spaces aimed at providing immediate care to support the safety of GBV survivors, raising awareness around VAWG and women’s rights, facilitating access to legal and medical services for survivors, as well as promoting economic empowerment for women affected by GBV. They also helped coordinate advocacy for policy changes to address GBV. These Safe Spaces took a holistic approach…
Spotlight Initiative in Malawi has partnered with the Government and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to establish Safe Spaces across the country. These spaces are run by “Mentors” who are trained to support women and girls to navigate and challenge gender based violence. They are also trained to intervene and follow up in cases of child marriages.
Women and girls who access these spaces are able to access services including sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial support, and counselling. In addition, they are given opportunities to develop skills to negotiate and challenge harmful…
“Flowers in the Air” (“Flores en el aire. Cartografia para la memoria de victimas de feminicidios”) is an initiative established by Spotlight Initiative in 2021 to provide symbolic reparations, raise awareness and understanding, and help to provide justice for the families and friends of women and adolescents who have been killed through femicide.
This initiative worked with victims’ loved ones to map out the lives of these women. They did this by walking through places of significance to the memory of these women and used a digital tool to map these walks and document the memories…
Spotlight Initiative worked with the Women and Children’s Protection Unit of the Liberian police force within Nimba county to improve their handling of VAWG cases and their understanding of how to work with survivors of rape. Spotlight Initiative built a relationship with the Liberian police force and provided a team who supported them with monitoring activities and following up on cases that had been taken to court. In addition, Spotlight Initiative renovated the police office building, providing police forces with chairs and computers to allow them to do their work more effectively. They…
In 2022 the Spotlight Initiative grantee, Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), launched a training to build understanding within Marshall Island Police Departments about how to take a survivor-centred approach, how to respond to VAWG survivors, and promoting positive masculinities. WUTMI worked closely with the mayors of each outer island to ensure police forces committed to the training. They encouraged mayors to join the training themselves to demonstrate their political leadership and commitment to ending violence against women and girls. Some testimonies from these officers…
Spotlight Initiative in Trinidad and Tobago connected new domestic violence legislation with healthcare services. The programme produced the National Clinical and Policy Guidelines on Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence, endorsed by the National Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health Committee. The Guidelines help healthcare providers to respond to survivors’ physical, mental, and social needs and make sure they get appropriate follow-up care.
Quality and accessible data are critical to inform clinical and policy decision-making. Spotlight Initiative…
In 2022, the Spotlight Initiative Pacific Regional Programme supported Cookhouse Confidential, an informal group of women from multiple organisations and agencies that work together to discuss and tackle women’s menstrual health issues in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Working together, Spotlight Initiative and Cookhouse Confidential administered small grants focused on efforts to advance sexual and reproductive health.
One such grant funded three women tailors in Ebeye, in the Marshall Islands, to produce reusable menstrual pads. These pads in turn were distributed to 250…
Spotlight Initiative in El Salvador has partnered with the Association of Transgender, Transexual and Transvestite Women to deliver rights-based and inclusive health services to the trans community. The programme strengthened capacities of the Dike+ Clinic, which provides access to low-cost medicine and medical and psychological health services to trans people. In providing unprecedented support to trans women organisations, the programme helped ensure all women have their needs considered, and opened a new window of opportunity for the trans population to champion their rights. Further…
Through the Latin America Regional Programme, many countries in the region have made progress in strengthening the clinical management of sexual violence and intimate partner violence through virtual online courses co-designed and built with the ministries of health of 11 countries. Over 18,600 people have participated across six countries (Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru) in these training sessions, strengthening their capacities to develop and deliver programmes that address violence against women and girls and specifically sexual violence and intimate partner…
In Zimbabwe, the UN Trust Fund partnered with Family AIDS Caring Trust Zimbabwe, a women-led organisation dedicated to improving the lives of marginalised communities through health and poverty reduction interventions. The UN Trust Fund supported project “Voices from the Fringes” addresses violence against young women, adolescent girls and self-identified female sex workers, and works to promote their sexual and reproductive health and rights in five districts across Zimbabwe. Family AIDS Caring Trust reported that, of the 137 self-identified female sex workers with whom they worked, 98%…