Domestic Violence Safety Planning

While South Africa is in lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, for some, isolating at homepresents additional risks. Know that help is available during the lockdown – for anyone at risk of domesticand gender-based violence. Download the Safety Plan – for staying safe while enduring an abusive relationship, or when planning to leave, and after leaving – during...

Press Release: GBV Victims & Shelters, COVID-19 Lockdown

While South Africans are stockpiling and preparing for a 21-day countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, for some, isolating at home presents additional risks, on top of avoiding possible CoVid-19 infection. According to the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSM) one of its main concerns is the potential for increased violence against women and children, who...Continue reading

Policing Responses to Domestic Violence: Exploring Reactions by the Police to Women in Need of Shelter

This research paper highlights weaknesses in police responses to victims of domestic violence by reviewing call logs documenting requests for assistance at three-hundred eighty-two (382) police stations across the country. The data emanates from research conducted by the Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF) and the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre (TLAC) in Gauteng and the Western Cape in 2012 and 2013, and...

The Long-term Impact of Shelters on the Lives of Abused Women

This publication is the final in a series of reports that the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa have produced in relation to their ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to Gender Based Violence (GBV): Paying the True Costs’ project’. GBV, and to be more specific, intimate partner violence (IPV), is a significant contributing factor to many women’s...Continue reading

Out of Harm’s Way: Women’s Shelters in the Eastern and Northern Cape

This publication is the fifth in a series of provincial studies describing women’s uses of shelters undertaken by the HBF and the National Shelter Movement of SA’s EU-supported ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs’ project. It builds on and extends these prior reports by attending to all women, rather than focusing only on those experiencing intimate partner...Continue reading

What is Rightfully Due? Costing the Operations of Domestic Violence Shelters

The Hlanganisa Institute for Development in South Africa, the National Shelter Movement of South Africa and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have recently launched a report which proposes new costing framework for shelter facilities and programmes. This is a much needed initiative as while shelters provide absolutely critical services to abused women, the majority are not only chronically under-funded – especially...Continue reading