The challenge 

"I live with the father of my son. We’re not married. More than once, our arguments have ended in him hitting me, shouting humiliating things at me, and the police having to come to our home. My son is 15 months old and his father supports us both financially as I can’t find work."

Over the past decade, Spain has witnessed great advances in efforts to combat domestic violence and protect women from abuse. Yet, there is still much progress to be made: this year, over the course of a mere five months between January and May, 22 women in Spain were killed in a dispute with a partner or ex-partner. Many women continue to be exposed to domestic violence and are forced into a cycle of dependence, lacking the psychological, emotional, and financial support needed to escape abuse.

"I want to find my own place with my son but I have nothing to offer. I'm forced to put up with the unbearable. I can’t report the abuse because he tells me that I should forget everything, otherwise he’ll kill me."

The solutions we’re proposing

W4’s field project, Fundación Ana Bella, has introduced the AMIGA program to create a peer-to-peer support network for marginalized and abused women in Spain. Thanks to this program, women seeking to escape domestic violence can find housing assistance, legal and administrative advice, counseling, financial and non-monetary donations (including clothing, food, school supplies for their children, medicine, furniture, etc.) and empowerment activities to be able to support themselves.

A key part of the AMIGA program is the building of long-term, supportive relationships between women trying to escape domestic violence and women who have successfully done so. Women experiencing abuse are given courage to break free and hope for the future on hearing survival stories of other women who have succeeded in overcoming abuse and reconstructing their lives.

Mobile phone calls enable these women to maintain constant contact. Whether a woman needs to be accompanied to the police station to report her aggressor or needs support as she goes through a divorce or custody battle, the AMIGA program reassures her that she is not alone and has a network of women standing beside her every step of the way.

The impact of giving

By funding mobile phone calls for a woman suffering from abuse, you can help her access the resources and assistance she requires to break free from domestic violence.  These phone calls can be lifesaving for a woman in an emergency, and offer a life-changing source of encouragement as she rebuilds her life.

Help a woman in Spain to flee domestic violence by financing her mobile phone calls to an abuse helpline today!