Women's Shelter (in dutch: Blijf van mijn lijf huis)

The problem of violent crime  takes place all over the world. Every society and culture experiences some degree of physical, emotional and mental violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and/or deprivation of liberty.
Governments therefore have a lot of work to do to guarantee the safety of their residents as well as possible. Non-Governmental organizations are often utilized to research the statistics and to make them known.

The World Health Organization report (Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2018) states, among other things,  that in the past 12 months, a total of between 245 and 307 million women worldwide have been victims of intimate partner violence. The highest percentage of these, 26-28%, is in the age group of 20 to 44 years old.

For Latin America and the Caribbean, we see that the region's percentage of intimate partner violence sits around the world average. Although the figures for the Caribbean are average, the number of registered victims in Curaçao has increased by almost 40% between 2020 - 2021. We can attribute this increase to the pandemic that has forced the whole world to live as a hermit during this time.

Curaçao currently has only one shelter that is subsidized by the government.

T & CL is part of a social project that is working purposefully to tackle this problem. The idea is to set up a non-profit organization that will aquire and manage "women's shelters".

The concept; "Women’s shelter" has existed for years in the Netherlands as well as all over the world. It is intended to offer victims of abuse, read domestic violence, temporary safe housing. In essence, this is also the main objective of the institution.

Objectives
The non-profit organization has the following objectives:

1) the purchase, management and / or keeping of real estate, which will act as a shelter / blijf van mijn lijf house;
2) to promote and complement victim support on the island of Curaçao and the region;

3) receiving and ensuring a safe temporary home for direct and indirect victims of violent crimes;
4) providing professional support and guidance of the physical, mental and emotional healing process of the resident victims; and
5) ensuring a successful reintegration process and providing reintegration possibilities.

The intention is that the institution, in cooperation with international partner organizations, will enter into exchanges of victims, with an increased threat risk, in order to enhance/ ensure their safety.

The project is still in the establishment phase, keep an eye on this website and other social media platforms for updates on the launch of the project. Crowdfunding will start soon.

If you want more information, participate, donate and /or invest, please contact us via our contact form or parceiro.org once it is up and running.