EASY - Increasing dialogue, awareness, and victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages
2023 - ongoing
The CERV-funded EASY project (“It is never easy to talk about this” – Increasing dialogue, awareness, and victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages) aims to increase community engagement and dialogue, raise awareness, and develop victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages. The project will in the long run contribute to a more gender-sensitive and and victim-centred access to services for victims of forced marriage and improve gender equality by preventing forced marriages and their harmful consequences.
Target groups
The main target group are women, and to some extend girls (aged over 14), who are victims of forced marriage or are in danger of becoming victims in 4 EU Member States (Spain, Ireland, Germany, Finland), and professionals who encounter (potential) victims: victim-support workers, police, migration authorities, social workers, NGO workers, teachers, youth workers etc.
Project activities
The first component is the collection of best practices on victim identification and support leading to the development of a best practice booklet and a customer journey map based on interviews and assessing real case examples. Best practices will concentrate on analysing issues and concepts that have a practical relevance in the development of effective and victim-centred interventions.
The second component includes activities enhancing community dialogue and awareness as well as developing and offering culturally sensitive victim-centred services to victims such as one-on-one, family counselling, awereness raising events, peer support groups, podcasts. In Ireland, outreach to affected communities will be facilitated by our Community Navigators.
Thirdly the capacity building component provides professionals with tools to better identify and support victims such as checklists for identification and support and sharing of legislative and multiagency working best practices among professionals nationally and transnationally. The activities are mutual learning workshops, a study-trip, expert roundtables, and webinars as well as disseminating information on best practices via media, social media, national and international professional networks.
Community Navigators
Community navigators are members of migrant communities, prepared and supported to provide information to gender based violence, with particular focus on victims and survivors of forced and early marriages, as well as acting as a cultural mediator connecting migrant women to support services available.
Navigators can:
- Provide information on the forms of gender-based violence;
- Provide information on where to find support, connecting victims with mainstream public services;
- Provide information on where to find legal, psychological and domestic violence support services in Ireland;
- Refer victims to the Immigrant Council's Anti-Trafficking team (for women victim of trafficking for sexual exploitation or early and forced marriages);
- Refer victims to the Immigrant Council's Independent Law Centre (when there is an immigration issue to be addressed).
If you or someone you know is a migrant experiencing domestic or other violence, there is support available and you are not alone.
For free, confidential one-on-one advice, please reach out to one of our navigators using the contact information below:
navigator1@immigrantcouncil.ie
English| French | Cantonese | Mandarin
navigator2@immigrantcouncil.ie
English | Persian | Uzbek
navigator3@immigrantcouncil.ie
English | Igbo
List of Front-Line services for women/children in Ireland
Non governmental organisations:
Ruhama: Ruhama is an Irish NGO and registered charity that offers nationwide support to women impacted by prostitution, sex trafficking and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
- Email: admin@ruhama.ie
- Phone: 01 8360292
Women’s Aid: Women’s Aid is a national, feminist organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse since 1974.
- Email: info@womenaid.ie
- Phone: 01 6788858
SONAS: Sonas is the largest provider of frontline services to women and children experiencing domestic abuse in the greater Dublin region.
- Email: info@sonasdomesticabuse.ie
- Phone: 01 8662015 or 1800222223.
Sexual Violence Centre Cork: The Centre provides services to survivors of rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse.
- Email: info@sexualviolence.ie
- Phone: 1800 496496
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre: Dublin Rape Crisis Centre works to prevent harm and heal the trauma of sexual violence. DRCC work with people who have experienced sexual assault, rape or childhood sexual abuse.
- Email: info@rcc.ie
- Phone: 01 6614911 or 1800 778888
AKidWa: Akina Dada wa Africa-AkiDwA (Swahili for sisterhood) is a national network of migrant women living in Ireland.
- Email: info@akidwa.ie
- Phone: 01 8349851
Doras: Doras is an independent organisation working to promote and protect the rights of people from a migrant background in Ireland.
- Email: info@doras.org
- Phone: 061 310328
Cope Galway: COPE provide essential support services for people who are homeless, women and children experiencing domestic abuse and older people.
- Email: info@copegalway.ie
- Phone: 091565985
Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre: Nasc is the Irish word for ‘link’ and the vision is of an inclusive and equal Ireland that realises the rights of all refugees and migrants.
- Email: reception@nascireland.ie
- Phone: 021 4273594
State Services:
HSE Women Health and Anti-Trafficking Services: The HSE Women’s Health Service (WHS) and Anti-Human Trafficking Team (AHTT) is a statutory service provided by the Health Service Executive. The WHS operates sexual health clinic services and outreach support to women/trans women involved in the sex industry. The AHTT has responsibility for care planning for both female/male victims of trafficking in all areas of exploitation.
- Email: infoline1@hse.ie
- Phone: 041 6850300 or 1850241850
TUSLA: TUSLA is responsible for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children. It represents the most comprehensive reform of child protection, early intervention and family support services ever undertaken in Ireland.
- Contact points vary for each county. Please find the list of contact details here.
Legal Aid Board: The Legal Aid Board is an independent, publicly funded organisation providing civil legal aid and advice, family mediation services, and administering three ad-hoc legal aid schemes connected with criminal matters.
- Email: info@legalaid.ie
- Phone: 066 9471000 or 1890615200
An Garda Siochana: An Garda Síochána is the Ireland’s National Police and Security Service.
- Contact points vary for each county. Please find a list of contact details here.
Contacts
Project coordinator (for all the general enquiries about the project), Finland
• Anniina Jokinen, Senior Programme Officer, European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI) anniina.jokinen@om.fi
Spain
• Carolina Villacampa Estiarte, University of Lleida, carolina.villacampa@udl.cat
• Pablo Becerril Martínez, Associació Valentes I Acompanyades, pablo@valentesiacompanyades.org
Germany
• Hasmik Manukyan, Solwodi, manukyan@solwodi.de
Ireland
• Valéria Aquino, Immigrant Council of Ireland, valeria@immigrantcouncil.ie
This project is co-funded by the European Union.