S’AIME

Name of the activity: S’AIME

Country/NMO: Belgium (BeMSA)

Program: Gender Based Violence

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education. Education on health issues for specific societal groups, either in the form of projects (set of tasks for a certain group over a fixed period of time), events (something notable that happens) or conferences (form meeting about ideas related to a particular topic, usually over several days).

General description:

14 months ago, three “centres for sexual violences” have been established in Belgium. One of them in Liège. Our Standing committee has discovered that not many people know the existence of this establishment though, nor do they know the steps to follow when they get in the situation where they get raped or where they get in contact with raped persons.

We invited a feminist group that talked about “safe places”.

We invited a forensic doctor to talk about sexual violence against women in general. He pointed out some statistics in Belgium, gave a clear definition about rape and mentioned the steps to follow, even if you don’t want to go to the police

He also showed us how you can recognize physical violence.

This event was followed of a Q&A session. One responsible of this “centre for sexual violences” was also invited and answered the questions that the audience had. The event was in collaboration with the University of Liège.

Focus area:

Domestic Violence

Problem statement:

Gender-based violence undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. Victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and even death. With this event we try to create awarness with the medical/healthcare student and teach them how they can detect the invisibility of GBV.

Target groups:

Medical students, Healthcare Students, Women

Beneficiaries:

Medical students, Healthcare Students, Women

Objectives and indicators of success:

-Teach indicators of GBV in healthcare students

– Succes indicators: Questions asked after the event via Facebook, event page…

Methodology:

Our Standing Committee discovered that not many medical students knew what to do if they came in contact with a patient who was victim of a rape. They didn’t know what do neither if they were in a situation of rape. The majority has never heard about a “centre for sexual violences” in Liège. The same situation was observed for non-medical students and other persons.

Our objective was to inform every person -victims of a rape, medical students, family and friends of a raped person, psychologists – who is interested in this topic what can be done.

We invited the feminist group of the University, an expert in the field of sexual violences – a forensic doctor and a responsible of the centre for sexual violences.

We collaborated with the University to reach people from all fields – not only medical students. Our event took part of their program called “Sem’aime” (or love week) which focuses on love, relationship and gender issues, etc. during one week.

Plans for evaluation:

At the end of the Q&A session, we asked the audience what they thought about the event.

After the event, there were a lot of people coming to speak with us in personal. We got (exclusively) positive feedback by those people.

We got voluntary (positive) feedback through facebook without having asked for it.

The project coordinator of the “Sem’aime” from the University did a survey. We haven’t accessed to the results yet but will hopefully get them soon