Gender-based Violence (GBV) response intervention

GBV survivors and vulnerable women and men suffering from complex social situations and/or psychological conditions have access to a shelter and therapeutic treatment.

Despite the high prevalence of GBV in the Country, many survivors never seeks help. The recent demographic health survey in Nepal (NDHS, 2011) found out that 3/4 of women who had experienced physical or sexual violence had not sought any help and 2/3 had never mentioned the violence to anyone.

The government has developed different schemes and acts to reduce the GBV. It also has established Women and Children Service centers (safe homes) as the response, however, the implementation of such acts and the quality of these services remain questionable. 

Apeiron believes that only through holistic programming GBV can be prevented and gender norms transformed. We also believe that beneficiaries in programming must be involved in the design of their own development.
Collecting baseline data; researching community knowledge, attitudes and practices; guiding beneficiaries through discussions; keeping an open feedback loop and adjusting programs throughout the program’s duration are all key ingredients to a successful, sustainable and socio-culturally appropriate intervention.

After extensive review of literature, statistics, guidelines and post-earthquake bulletins, we have determined that our GBV response intervention could truly have a positive impact on gender equality in households and communities. UNFPA Nepal shared our same belief and therefore assigned Apeiron the duty to provide technical assistance and backstopping to GOV safe home in Udayapur, Okhaldhunga and Sindhuli Districts.

The key activities of the project are as follows:

1. Apeiron technical team visit the districts’ safe homes for need assessment to identify the gaps in services. After having collected the information, submitted the observations and completed the checklist, the team will return to the office in Kathmandu and a technical assistance plan will be developed.

2. Technical backstopping to the safe houses through the mentoring approach to bring out practical and more participatory sharing-learning results. During these backstopping interventions, the participating safe homes create their own local and regional network, learn from best practices as well as learn to solve complex problems that may incur during the case management.

3. Case Management of the complex cases. The complex cases that cannot be managed in the safe houses in the districts will be referred to Apeiron’ safe home in Kathmandu, CASANepal.

4. Refer vulnerable women and men to institutions for long term shelter and mental health rehabilitation. The prevalence of mental health problems in the GBV survivors is increasingly evident. These men and women are twice as much as vulnerable due to their sensitive nature. Mental health problems can be the cause and the consequences of the Gender Based Violence and it should be necessary to address this issue to effectively respond to the problems. This project proposes the following activities in order to assist the vulnerable survivors of GBV with mental health problems:

• Case assessment by the psycho-social counselor of the safe home in Kathmandu

During the case assessment and after the intake in the safe house in Kathmandu, the psychosocial counselor assesses the survivors mental health status. If the survivor is identified to need further interventions which is not possible to respond to in CASANepal, the safe home staff will immediately coordinate with Koshish Nepal for consultation. In the case of survivor needing residential care from Koshish, she will be referred there. Once she is transferred to Koshish, the social worker will still follow up and help in case management from the safe home in Kathmandu. Once the survivor is treated and deemed capable of living in a ‘normal’ setting, she will again be transferred to the safe home in Kathmandu where a new case management plan will be made and implemented.

• Refer GBV survivors to relevant institutions when necessary, notably when reintegration in communities is not an option

This activity is only mentioned for the GBV survivors with mental problems whose reintegration in communities is not an option. The survivors with mental problems which is not treatable, will be referred to relevant institutions such as Nepal Mental Hospital or Kopila Safe Home.

5. Document cases and develop an evidence based policy brief based on the experience to advocate for quality shelter support to GBV survivors. The documentation of the project will be at every sensitive phase of the project. Apeiron has already developed various formats for the documentation such as intake form, executive monthly reporting format, case studies format etc. In addition, Apeiron is also a GBVIMS member. It means that it adheres to certain rules like consent, confidentiality and information management of the case intakes.