SOS Staff from the Women's Crisis Center in Mogilev, Belarus

SOS Children's Villages launched the women's crisis center in August of 2010. The first of its kind for the country of Belarus and built with only six rooms, the crisis center can’t yet accommodate the many local women who are victims of domestic violence.  The center’s presence, however, is helping to put the social issue on the map. Pushkaryova says she has had to work hard to convince officials that the problem even exists.
 
“They weren’t aware of it,” she says. Because Belarus has no law against domestic violence, no state entity tracks it and no statistics on it exist.

“Now the same officials ask us about how to cooperate,” says Pushkaryova, who adds that the absence of legal sanctions makes it difficult for the police to help women who need protection.

Onus on Victims

In order to start criminal proceedings against a violent husband, in Belarus a woman must call the police three times and file an application. The subsequent fine is paid from the family budget, thus punishing the family, not the husband, says Pushkaryova. Reporting to the police often results in further violence against the wife, she says. By law, police can only detain a violent husband up to one day.

Without effective legislation to protect women from violence at home, long-suffering victims feel powerless. Some become suicidal, some act in self-defense. One woman, recalls Pushkaryova, was chopping cabbage when her husband attacked her yet again; with knife in hand, she killed him.

SOS cares for children who are affected by domestic violence

Although the center was set up only a year ago, it already has provided sanctuary to 240 children and 125 mothers.

SOS’s Women’s Crisis Center offers psychological and legal counseling, therapy, and help finding a job or arranging school for children. The center also works with children to help them understand that domestic violence is neither normal nor acceptable. It’s important, says Pushkaryova, to break the cycle of violence that can live on from one generation to the next. To break that cycle, center staff lecture at schools and workplaces, explaining what domestic violence is and how to deal with it.

Staff members don't offer ready-made solutions, explains Pushkaryova.  “We simply try to empower women so they can find the inner strength to make the right choices for them.”