324 Violence Against Women
Set up services to help women who leave
• Set up a ‘safe house’ or shelter as soon as
possible. Keep the place hidden and secret.
• Get support from others—especially
larger, more powerful organizations. For
example, see if there is a network of health
organizations in your country that can help.
You can also talk with respected community
members whom you trust. Get as many men
as possible to work with you.
• Help women learn about their rights under the law.
There may be special laws about families and
violence that women can use.
• Find ways to train women in new skills, so that abused
women have a way to support themselves.
Use social pressure
What are the pressures that prevent people where you live
from doing things that most people believe are wrong? In some
places, it is the police. In others it may be the military,
In some communities in
Central America, men
the family, or religion. In most places, it is a combination
of these things.
volunteer to patrol their
communities to warn the
people of attacks, and to
keep them safe from crime.
In these communities,
violence against women is
Encourage community leaders and other men to
speak out against violence against women and to show
their disapproval of men who beat women. Try and use
all of the pressures that work where you live to keep
men from abusing women.
not tolerated. If a man is
caught beating his wife, he
knows the other men in the
town will punish him.
In some countries, women have organized to get laws
passed that punish men who abuse their wives. But laws
do not always work well for abused women. In some
places, the people who are supposed to enforce the
laws—especially the police, the lawyers, and the judges—
cannot be trusted to help. But if the legal system and the police
both work to protect women where you live, try to learn as
much as you can about the laws
and about women’s rights.
Raise your children to lead
non-violent lives. You can
work for change at home
by helping your children
find peaceful ways to solve
problems. Teach boys to
respect themselves and to
respect girls and women.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012