Our Safe Home is an initiative of Operation PeaceMaker of My Choices Foundation to provide a safe shelter home for survivors of domestic violence. The Safe Home provides vulnerable women and their children with counselling services, legal aid and vocational training. It can accommodate up to 12 survivors of domestic violence along with their children.
In India, it is estimated that 1 in 3 women face domestic violence. Most women do not speak about it as they do not have resources to support them - Most women facing abuse are either financially or emotionally dependant on their abusive partner, making it impossible to escape the abuse. While the Domestic Violence Act mandates protection through shelter homes, they are overcrowded. Without access to shelter home, financial and legal aid these women are forced to continue facing abuse.
It has been proved through multiple studies that domestic violence shelters address compelling needs that survivors cannot meet elsewhere. They provide a complex array of services to victims of abuse and their children - safety, information, help with children and emotional distress. While Operation PeaceMaker has been providing counselling and legal services to women facing abuse, through the Safe Home we aim to also provide a loving, peaceful and safe environment for women in crisis.
With access to a shelter home that nourishes and supports a woman in crisis, the woman will be able to transform herself from a victim to a survivor of Domestic Violence. Being a survivor, she will have reclaimed the agency in her life and have the capacity to support people that are dependant on her. She will have made the choice to be free from abuse and be able to follow the path that she has chosen for herself. The Safe Home will enable the transformation of thousands of such SURVIVORS.
