Every year from November 25 to December 10, the All-Ukrainian campaign “16 Days Against Violence” takes place in Ukraine, aimed at increasing public attention to the problems of domestic violence, protecting human rights and establishing a culture of zero tolerance for any of its manifestations.
Donetsk region traditionally joined the campaign, uniting the efforts of all entities involved in preventing and combating domestic violence. During the campaign, information and educational activities were systematically carried out in the region, aimed at various target audiences - children, youth, service workers, representatives of territorial communities and a wide range of the population.
Information work was carried out in various accessible formats - in the territory of the Donetsk region, taking into account the difficult security conditions, and in different regions of Ukraine, where internally displaced persons from Donetsk region live. This allowed for broad coverage and to convey the campaign’s key messages to residents, regardless of their location.
The official web resources of the regional state administration regularly published materials on forms of violence, ways to get help, contacts of support services, recommendations for safe behavior and protection of human rights. This format of information made it possible to quickly reach a significant part of the audience both in the region and beyond.
With the assistance of the Department of Family, Youth and Mass Events of National and Patriotic Education of the regional state administration, in cooperation with the public organizations “Avalist” and “Desyate kvirya”, a number of thematic meetings, lectures and trainings were held in the structural divisions of territorial communities. They were aimed at raising awareness of the prevention of domestic violence, the procedure for interaction between services, and the peculiarities of working with vulnerable groups of the population.
In parallel, territorial communities in different regions of Ukraine organized separate events for internally displaced residents of the Donetsk region. Among the key areas of work:
– sessions on recognizing signs of domestic violence and gender-based violence;
– information sessions and trainings on cybersecurity for children and youth;
– consultations, workshops on the possibilities of receiving comprehensive psychological, legal and social support;
– dissemination of educational materials on social networks and on community information resources.
Thanks to the coordinated work of all subjects of the system of combating domestic violence, the “16 Days Against Violence” campaign covered both residents of the Donetsk region and internally displaced persons in different regions of the country.
The activities carried out contributed to increasing awareness among residents of the Donetsk region and internally displaced persons on issues of preventing and combating domestic violence, as well as a better understanding of available mechanisms for obtaining assistance and protecting rights. At the same time, despite the completion of the All-Ukrainian campaign "16 Days Against Violence", the work of providing assistance to victims and forming non-violent behavior in families remains a constant direction of activity of the relevant services and continues on a systematic basis.