Violence Elimination Program

One of ADEW’s programs is the combating violence program or Beit Hawa shelter - considered the first place for abused women in Egypt. It also offers listening sessions and awareness seminars.

The female beneficiaries from this program have the right to benefit from our set of programs in the aim of building their lives, rehabilitating them, and empowering them to make their own decisions. ADEW also offers its package of services to abused children either who are either themselves subjected to violence or witness violent practices being used against their mothers.

The most unique thing about the program is that the work is implemented on two levels first, through the offering of direct services to women and children; and second, through the raising of awareness about the harms of domestic violence on both global and local levels through the influencing of public opinion, media and decision makers via conducting conferences, documentaries and issuing printouts.

Why Beit Hawa? Through ADEW’s 33 years of field work, the staffhave listened to women who have experienced domestic violence and have realized the consequence they faced when asking for help. Abused women are found to be helpless without any alternatives to resist the violence. Dr.Iman Bibars’PhD dissertation was based on 444 interviews with FHHs where she found that 69% were subjected to physical or sexual violence! The Beit Hawa shelter is a safe zone for homeless women and children to live together and encourages solidarity between them to build their own community.

Beit Hawa offers 24 hour a day services through our well trained personnel and consultants. ADEW also offers its services to abused children or the children of abused mothers. Regarding ADEW as a feminist organization, we distinctively offer a set of services to women through rehabilitating and training them through our different programs and projects like MCP, the literacy program, financial sessions and narrative therapy. ADEW even offers its services to the abused women’s families in case they ask for them. Beit Hawa services:

- Psychological counseling/listing unit
- Legal assistance
- Solidarity meetings that back women up when expressing themselves- Training women on capacity building and financial literacy

Domestic violence statistics in Egypt:

-33% of married women have been subjected at least once to violence by their husbands (1995)
- 72% of abused women acknowledged that the abuser is the husband, in 43% of cases the abusers was the father, and in 37% the abuser was the brother (1995)
- 80% of rural women perceived of violence as a normal and justifiable thing.
-96% of 444 interviewed women in Manshiet Nasser where ADEW works acknowledged that they were subjected to different types of sexual or domestic violence (2001)

The achievements of Violence Elimination Program:

-Number of beneficiaries of the VAW Program is more than 10000 women.
-20000 women whose awareness has been raised and benefited from the psychological counseling services.
-Since 2005 till now, The shelter hosted 200 women and their children with permanent residence for 6 months And 150 women and their children were hosted for periods less than 3 months.
-and 75 women and their children were hosted for periods less than one month.