Paz y Desarrollo started the initiative in March 2009 with the support of AGSL and its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The project will be funded by AECID (Spanish Agency of International Development Cooperation) and it is expected to be completed by June 2010 with the technical support of Paz y Desarrollo, a Spanish nongovernmental organisation.
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Women In Need (WIN) is a women’s organisation established in 1987 by a group of women who wanted to actively work against Gender Based Violence. One year later, WIN opened its first Crisis Centre for battered women and today has expanded to 7 Crisis Centres in the Western, Central, Southern, Uva and North Central, North Western and Northern Provinces and 2 Police Station Counselling Centres. These Centres that offer Crisis Counselling Legal Services to victims of violence were the first of their kind to be opened in Sri Lanka. WIN’s focus is now on establishing a shelter in Jaffna as well as the one in the Southern Province.
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The shelter will be the first of its kind in the Southern Province to offer a safe environment for women and children who experience abuse and violence. Guided by the vision to give women and children at risk an opportunity and future by facilitating recovery and healing process and supporting their strengths and talents, the Shelter’s services and initiatives are aimed at:
The Divisional Secretariat of Matara and WIN signed the MoA as the partners who will assure and guarantee the continuity and sustainability of the shelter. AGSL has facilitated the negotiations previous to the signing of the MoA in order to ensure that this initiative of cooperation and partnership links two key local actors concerned with women’s issues in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka.
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Paz y Desarrollo (a Spanish International NGO) currently supports projects in many countries, specifically in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The objective of Paz y Desarrollo is not only to contribute to the eradication of poverty, but also to address the root causes of it. The organization provides technical and economical support, facilitating resources so the population affected by poverty can reach their self-development, promoting a knowledge-based approach of the society to their problems, gaps, needs through social awareness, training and, education in order to promote a positive attitude towards a fairer and more caring world. In the Philippines, Vietnam and East Timor Paz y Desarrollo runs successful gender programmes which will benefit also their newly started interventions in Sri Lanka.
P&D has signed a partnership agreement with ART International in 2008. The aim is to work within the framework of ART GOLD framework programs in a bid to reduce fragmentation and improve coordination between various development actors. The partnership is currently implemented already in various Latin American countries; Sri Lanka will be the first partnership in Asia. More information to be found under: http://www.pazydesarrollo.org/
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