Our new anti-abuse and exploitation project reaches 800 beneficiaries

We are delighted to report that our recent project to tackle Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) has been a resounding success, reaching over 800 beneficiaries in four months.

The project launched in April and concluded at the end of July, and was made possible with the generous support of SEZ and the Federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Our approach meant that as well as reaching women, men and child IDPs and refugees, we targeted NGO and government staff, in order to improve internal reporting and responses to sexual abuse and exploitation.

During the initiative, we held workshops and community outreach at Domiz 2, Essyan and Rwanga camps, and also targeted more than 100 government and NGO employees in Duhok city. Vital sessions on improving reporting methods for exploitation and abuse were implemented in cooperation with the Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women in Duhok.

As well as enabling attendees to better protect themselves from exploitation, the project was designed to ensure that perpetrators are more likely to be held accountable by responsible UN and Government bodies, plus other agencies in the region, through appropriate referral pathways. 

The project was fundamentally important as incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse have risen sharply during the Covid-19 crisis – due to factors such as lockdowns, job losses and a shortage of resources. In our own needs assessment, we found that 76% of respondents had no idea what SEA was, while 63% said cases had increased during the pandemic.

Typically, SEA remains chronically under-reported due to fear of stigmatisation and rejection by the community, and there are few legal avenues to report and act upon abuse.

We look forward to seeing the benefits of everyone’s hard work in action – and to delivering many more valuable projects to help eradicate abuse and exploitation in future…