Ashkhen Babayan the president of Spitaki Helsinki Group Human Rights NGO and the lawyer Arevhat Petrosyan held two-day meetings for the women of Akhuryan, Amasya, Artik and Maralik communities of Shirak region on the topic “Formation of joint ways to prevent domestic violence”

within the framework of the (2020-2022) Project “Women  rights defenders take steps against gender-based violence in Armenia”.

On the first day of the meetings, the participants completed a preliminary knowledge pre questianary , which enabled them to understand what ideas and knowledge they have about domestic violence. Afterwards, expert Arevhat Petrosyan spoke about the concept of DV, its types and legal regulations. The meetings in all communities were accompanied by healthy and interesting discussions.

On the last day of the meetings, the participants filled out the post questianary, the results of which showed how effective such meetings were. The women have obviously enriched their knowledge, and the most active participants among them received certificates of participation.

We conducted the last course of the  project for the beneficiaries of our partner “Agate” NGO for the protection of the rights of women with disabilities.

Due to this project, the number of beneficiaries of the SHG increased  more than 15%. Evaluating the importance and effectiveness of similar meetings, our organization plans to continue and conduct meetings for women from other communities in 2023.

The project “Women human rights defenders take steps against gender-based violence in Armenia” (2020-2022) is implemented by the Coalition Against Violence against Women with European Union  funding.