B92 Fund hands over new safe house in Sremska Mitrovica

B92 Fund hands over new safe house in Sremska Mitrovica

The center will manage the safe house on behalf of the municipalities of Serbia's Srem District.

The conditions have thus been created for providing the victims of domestic violence from this region with accommodation in a representative facility built in line with the highest European standards.

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Coordination Body for Gender Equality Zorana Mihajlovic, Sremska Mitrovica Mayor Branislav Nedimovic, President of the B92 Fund Veran Matic, and representatives of the District Public Prosecutor's Office, sponsors and other distinguished guests.

The number of reported cases of domestic violence received by Center for Social Welfare Sava in Sremska Mitrovica is constantly increasing. Last year, this institution received reports of 200 cases - an increase of 64 percent compared to the previous year. In the first three months of 2016 alone 30 cases of violence against women have been reported.

Previously, the victims from Sremska Mitrovica and the Srem District were housed in safe houses in Novi Sad and Zrenjanin, as well as in foster homes. So far up to 15 women have been provided accommodation in this way every year, while there have been no fatal outcomes in the related cases of family violence. In addition to these activities, the Center is implementing prevention programs in the community in order to establish zero tolerance for violence, specifically to educate fellow citizens and encourage that each case of domestic violence is reported to the authorities. With the opening of the safe house in Sremska Mitrovica, the conditions for taking care of the victims improved dramatically, as well as for further improvement of activities aimed at eradicating this type of violence.

The Sremska Mitrovica safe house was built resources provided by the B92 Fond, the District Public Prosecution in Sremska Mitrovica, the Vojvodina Provincial Secretariat for Economy, Employment and Gender Equality, and the city of Sremska Mitrovica. The total investment is worth about RSD 25 million.

The Safe House in Sremska Mitrovica will accommodate women survivors of violence in this city and other municipalities of the Srem District. The facility covers 300 square meters and has 20 beds, has safety equipment, quality appliances and furniture, and generally meets the highest standards of social protection of this type.

Security equipment for the new safe house was purchased with a donation from the AVON company, appliances were provided by Gorenje d.o.o., while Tefal and Julius Meinl helped by donating some of the dishes. Dexy Co. provided toys for children, while publishers B92 Samizdat, Laguna and Kreativni Centar (Creative Center) donated books. The house is decorated with paintings, works of inmates of the Administration of Penal Sanctions, created during the process of their occupational therapy. Welcoming the guests on Friday, Sremska Mitrovica Mayor Branislav Nedimovic pointed out that, the Srem District has unfortunately not been immune to violence against women.

"We, as the local government, have not been able to solve this problem by ourselves. Thanks to the efforts of the B92 Fund and the District Public Prosecutor's Office, by opening the safe house, the first in Srem, the victims of violence will be helped in a better and more humane manner. I am certain that we will from now on deal with these negative phenomena easier and better and that we will soon have tangible results, and less violence."

Minister Zorana Mihajlovic expressed her satisfaction that Serbia was getting another safe house, adding that these facilities were important as a first step in the protection of women.

"But they are only a part of the solution," she warned, adding:

"More than 80 percent of women return to the abuser, because they cannot support themselves and their children. Without economically independent women, there can be no gender equality. The government of Serbia and the Coordination Body will continue their programs of economic empowerment of women, as a key factor in the prevention and protection from violence. At my insistence, we hired women from safe houses to work in toll booths near Novi Sad, and this practice will continue, because we will employ five more women in the new toll booths that will soon be launched by Roads of Serbia (public company)." Handing over the keys to the safe house to the Social Welfare Center Sava Director Snezana Stanisavljevic, Veran Matic stressed:

"The B92 Fund this year marks ten years of campaigning against domestic violence, which resulted not only in greater social visibility of the problem, but also in the construction of seven buildings, the safe houses across Serbia and Vojvodina which now accommodate victims of violence or those at risk of it. All the houses are built in partnership between the B92 Fund, the state and the business sector, on the principles of philanthropy and endowment. Before this house stands the task of create the conditions not only for the care, but also for economic empowerment, which is a prerequisite to successfully eradicate violence and its consequences. I hope that the B92 Fund's Onasnazivanje ("She-Empowerment") project will soon be launched in Sremska Mitrovica."