Handover ceremony of essential equipment and facilities held in Peace House Shelters in Hanoi (Photo courtesy of UN Women Vietnam) Earlier on March 12, essential equipment and facilities werealso presented to the Peace House Shelter in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
This assistance is under the joint project of Supporting Interventionsto Eliminate Violence against Women and Children in Vietnam under COVID-19Emergency Context, financially sponsored by the Australian Government with technicalsupport of UN Women, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN International Children’sEmergency Fund (UNICEF).
The pandemic has not only affected socio-economic aspectsbut also increased violence against women and children.
According to a report of UN Women, violence against womenand children across the globe has risen by 30-300 percent since the pandemicbroke out.
In Vietnam, the number of calls and texts to the hotlines ofand the number of victims visiting the Peace House Shelters in 2020 increasedsevenfold year-on-year.
Elisa Fernandez Saenz, Country Representative of UN WomenVietnam, said that the assistance aims to supplement to the VietnameseGovernment’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure essentialservices supporting violence victims are not disrupted and are improved.
Along with equipment and facilities, UN Women also helps increasethe capacity of staff who man the hotlines or work at the Peace House Sheltersso as to better respond to increasing violence amidst the pandemic, she added.
The hotlines and Peace House Shelters have so far providedconsultations for 9,043 people, and rescued and sheltered 1,361 women and 560children.
VNA
