At the Fourth World Conference of Women's Shelters (4WCWS) the Global Network of Women's Shelters (GNWS) launched a Worldwide Women’s Helplines Project to create a dependable global website that lists accurate, approved, safe resources for victims of domestic and sexual violence in every country of the world. The platform will provide easy-to-find information for victims seeking help when they are in crisis, and connect them to qualified counsellors and advocates wherever they are in the world.
Colour the grey!
The enthusiastic support for the project at 4WCWS showed that there is an urgent need for this service. During the conference, and in the days following, we collected helpline information from an amazing 61 countries. However, we still have 137 countries to go! If you have information on a national helpline in your country, or know about a district or regional helpline in your locality, please write to the GNWS Helplines Project coordinator and ask for a link to our online questionnaire.
Important: If there is no national women's helpline in your country, we also need that information so we can advocate for one to be established!
Name the website
At 4WCWS we received 18 beautiful suggestions for the name of the Helpline Website. The members the GNWS board of directors and a communications specialist will help us choose the best one. We let you know as soon as possible which name has been selected.
We will present the Helplines Project at CSW64 in New York in March 2020, and are already working on a more detailed plan for phase 2 of the project. If you would like to get involved please contact us at the above email.