Category: Mass media

A surge in domestic violence: how to protect yourself and where to turn for help during quarantine

During the period of quarantine due to the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, Ukrainians began to turn to domestic violence hotlines more often for help. Alyona Kryvulyak, director of the department of national "hot" lines and social assistance of the NGO "La Strada-Ukraine", told in an interview with Glavred about what provokes people to domestic violence and what problems they face for help, to whom violence is most often used, how they react to the calls of victims to law enforcement agencies, how to protect yourself from uncontrolled aggression and whether the number of cases will decline after the end of the quarantine.

In 1998, there were only three of us, - co-founder of "La Strada" Kateryna Levchenko about the 22 years of the organization

Today, "La Strada" consists of 35 like-minded people who work to ensure gender equality, prevent all types of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, combat human trafficking, and ensure children's rights. The organization promotes the implementation of international human rights standards in all spheres of society. In addition, there is a national coaching network and a national network of mediators.

"The first swallows of quarantine: the number of calls to the National Children's Hotline has increased

Most of us think that it is difficult for them to sit in quarantine: it is boring, all the series have already been watched, things are sorted... We feel sorry for ourselves, we regret that we want to sit in a cafe and go shopping again. But in reality, children and teenagers suffering from domestic violence are in real trouble. They were left alone with their abusers, and the only way to talk was to call the "La Strada Ukraine" hotline.