Safe house opens in Vojvodina town

A safe house for women and children victims of domestic violence was opened in the town of Pancevo on Friday as a part of a B92 Fund campaign. B92 Fund handed over the safe house to the Pancevo Social Work Center on Friday, the day when the whole world marks the launch of a campaign of solidarity with the victims of domestic violence entitled "16 days of Activism Against Gender Violence". Safe house opens in Vojvodina town This is the fifth safe house constructed as a part of the B92 Fund campaign since 2007. As the other safe houses, this shelter also has 270 square meters and can accommodate around 20 victims. It was constructed in accordance with European standards and the total value of the investment is about EUR 150,000. The safe house in Pancevo was jointly built by the Vojvodina Executive Council and B92 Fund and that campaign is aimed at providing a modern facility for housing of women and children victims of violence to every Banat District Social Work Center. The safe houses have already been opened in Zrenjanin, Sombor and Pancevo. Besides B92 Fund, Vojvodina Executive Council and the Town of Pancevo, the main partner in the project was NIS Gazprom Neft. The house was equipped by the donations of public gas company Srbijagas, Gorenje and Orion Telekom. B92 Fund President Veran Matic said at the opening of the safe house that “the escalation of family violence, the brutality and terrible consequences for children and the environment in general, indicate that we need to undertake new actions and new strategies, and of course, build new safe houses”. “As for Vojvodina, we are finishing the construction of the safe house network, while the rest of Serbia is still insufficiently covered with the facilities that help get women and children away from perpetrators," he pointed out. Unfortunately, the number of female victims of domestic violence still grows in Serbia and 33 women were killed in the first nine months of 2011, B92 Fund has said in a release. According to police information, 41 women were killed in 2010 and information that the number of victims of violence increased 11 times from 2005 until 2009 is alarming. The murders were often very brutal and were committed by victims’ present or former partners. 10 murders in the last two years were followed by suicides of the perpetrators, which additionally speaks for itself about the drastic destruction of family values. Research shows that 54 percent of women in Serbia have been exposed to some kind of family violence, mental or physical, while in 40 percent of the cases, at least one minor was present during the physical violence against women. Women of all age groups and all levels of education, different social and family status are exposed to violence, while the perpetrators are usually husbands or common-law partners, present or former ones, and often even fathers, mothers and other relatives. The tragic statistics shows that it is high time to change the way the whole society treats this issue. Although the national strategy for the prevention of family violence was adopted this year, we strongly believe that without radical revision in the attitude of state bodies and different, more active role of the police, judicial system and state social care bodies there would be no essential breakthrough in combat against domestic violence, B92 Fund pointed out in the statement. B92 will continue to actively deal with the issue during the course of 2012.

Safe house opens in Vojvodina town

This is the fifth safe house constructed as a part of the B92 Fund campaign since 2007.

As the other safe houses, this shelter also has 270 square meters and can accommodate around 20 victims. It was constructed in accordance with European standards and the total value of the investment is about EUR 150,000.

The safe house in Pančevo was jointly built by the Vojvodina Executive Council and B92 Fund and that campaign is aimed at providing a modern facility for housing of women and children victims of violence to every Banat District Social Work Center.

The safe houses have already been opened in Zrenjanin, Sombor and Pančevo.

Besides B92 Fund, Vojvodina Executive Council and the Town of Pančevo, the main

partner in the project was NIS Gazprom Neft. The house was equipped by the donations of public gas company Srbijagas, Gorenje and Orion Telekom.

B92 Fund President Veran Matić said at the opening of the safe house that “the escalation of family violence, the brutality and terrible consequences for children and the environment in general, indicate that we need to undertake new actions and new strategies, and of course, build new safe houses”.

“As for Vojvodina, we are finishing the construction of the safe house network, while the rest of Serbia is still insufficiently covered with the facilities that help get women and children away from perpetrators," he pointed out.

Unfortunately, the number of female victims of domestic violence still grows in Serbia and 33 women were killed in the first nine months of 2011, B92 Fund has said in a release.

According to police information, 41 women were killed in 2010 and information that the number of victims of violence increased 11 times from 2005 until 2009 is alarming. The murders were often very brutal and were committed by victims’ present or former partners. 10 murders in the last two years were followed by suicides of the perpetrators, which additionally speaks for itself about the drastic destruction of family values.

Research shows that 54 percent of women in Serbia have been exposed to some kind of family violence, mental or physical, while in 40 percent of the cases, at least one minor was present during the physical violence against women.

Women of all age groups and all levels of education, different social and family status are exposed to violence, while the perpetrators are usually husbands or common-law partners, present or former ones, and often even fathers, mothers and other relatives.

The tragic statistics shows that it is high time to change the way the whole society treats this issue. Although the national strategy for the prevention of family violence was adopted this year, we strongly believe that without radical revision in the attitude of state bodies and different, more active role of the police, judicial system and state social care bodies there would be no essential breakthrough in combat against domestic violence, B92 Fund pointed out in the statement.

B92 will continue to actively deal with the issue during the course of 2012.