Women in Need (WIN), a non-profit nongovernmental organisation fighting against all forms of violence against women and girls for more than three decades, is establishing social enterprises for sustainability and to emancipate victims of domestic violence.
Savithri Wijesekera, a lawyer by profession and Executive Director at Women in Need where she has dedicated over 30 years of her life fighting against all forms of violence against women and supporting victimsurvivors by providing all essential services for women and girls, is also spearheading efforts to start several social enterprises to empower victims of domestic violence.
A recipient of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) International Award for the Health and Dignity of Women in 2011, and as we have just heard from The Asia Foundation – a 2021 winner of the Lotus Leadership Award from The Asia Foundation in recognition of outstanding individuals and organizations for their contributions toward women’s and girls’ empowerment in Asia, her legal expertise helped frame the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 2005.
Today, Wijesekera is hoping that successful women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders will step up to stamp out violence against women.
WIN was established in 1987 by a group of women who realised that there was a dire problem women were facing: domestic violence. It was a growing problem that no one was addressing. It was a problem no one was willing to acknowledge at the time.
“Over the decades little has improved, in fact, the lack of progress can be very frustrating at times,” Wijesekera says.
“The hardships women of this country face are not limited to domestic violence, there’s sexual abuse, harassment, cyberbullying, child abuse, and gender biases in general.’
Our system of law and order does somewhat protect women and girls subjected to violence, but we face challenges in the implementation of these laws.
We need to improve the processes, systems and implementation of laws and sensitize stakeholders to treat these violations as human rights violations and treat the victim with sensitivity and respect, as it is always difficult for women and girls to break the silence due to the social stigma and pressures attached.
Over three decades, WIN has helped over half a million women escape abusive homes and end toxic relationships.
At the start WIN provided psychological counselling, and then quickly realised that the scale and the brutality of domestic violence needed something more, and so began to provide free legal advice and representation at court. But even this was not enough.
Women escaping abusive spouses faced death, disfiguring acid attacks, or grievous bodily harm. “One husband knocked out all his wife’s teeth for not giving him balance money from a purchase. It was not more than ten rupees,” Wijesekera recalls.
WIN opened safe-houses in Colombo, Matara, Anuradhapura, and Batticaloa for women subjected to abuse, who were left with nowhere else to go or whose lives were in imminent danger.
Apart from clothing, food, and shelter, WIN provides proper medical treatment, psychological support and finds women in their care jobs to help them get back to their feet. WIN also supports mothers seek custody and protection of their young children and provide for them at the shelters too.
“Women do not come forward and the vast majority suffer in silence because of the humiliation and stigma. Daily, around five to ten women call on WIN for help, and that’s only in Colombo, on a normal day,” Wijesekera says.
“During the 2 month lockdown period when WIN’s offices were closed, our hotline received over 2,000 cries for help.
Even when they do find the courage to file a police complaint they are not treated with sensitivity or understanding, and the norm is to convince them to go back to abusive husbands and partners”, Wijesekera laments.
“Over the last 30 years you would think we have achieved something, but things have not improved much.
Over the last few years, WIN has worked on cyber harassment of women and girls which is a relatively new extension of violence against women.
WIN continues to work and advocate with policymakers and law enforcement officers to sensitize them and to strengthen their capacities in order to take steps necessary to address the growing issue, which has a huge impact on victims.
Responding to the lack of accessibility to legal protections and services, WIN introduced the first-ever mobile app addressing gender-based violence in Sri Lanka called 2SIX4.
The multilingual app functions as an emergency contact point for victims who are in a state of crisis. It also provides information on legal rights and instructions women and girls should take when they face a crisis.
“We also do advocacy work, research on women’s issues and rights, and conduct sensitization programmes for law enforcement, health, and other officials. Breaking patriarchal attitudes and cultural biases is the hardest to do, but we are insistently raising our voices against them,” Wijesekera says.
Various organisations including some businesses support WIN in many ways, and professionals like doctors, psychologists and lawyers volunteer their time and resources.
WIN maintains a 24-hour hotline and special desks at six police divisions including Colombo, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, and Badulla, and special counselling stations at hospitals in Colombo and Anuradhapura.
Apart from the safehouses, WIN maintains crisis centres with qualified counsellors and lawyers in Colombo, Matara, Badulla, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa and Jaffna. Funding these activities and campaigning for the rights and protection of women can be challenging.
A social enterprise venture called WIN for HER was launched partly to economically emancipate those women who are abused, bruised, and tormented by their husbands, partners or male relatives who use their economic status and power to cause harm and prevent women from leaving.
WIN has trained domestic violence survivors to manufacture recycled paper at its centre in Matara and the centre in Colombo handcrafts related stationery and gift items like notebooks, greeting cards and gift boxes and bags which are sourced to various retail partners.
They take special orders for notebooks for various organisations and also craft custom wedding cake boxes. All proceeds from the sale of all paper and handmade products help support the victims who work hard on this project, and towards the sustainability of the organisation.
WIN is now encouraging each of its regional centres to develop a social enterprise. Its centre in Jaffna is looking at producing kurakkan and rice flour, chilli powder and curry powder for retail trade, and our team in Batticaloa is exploring a manufacturing venture in palmyrabased products, Wijesekera says.
“WIN is stepping into a new era with all these empowerment projects, and my hope is that women who have made it in life will step up to help their less fortunate sisters stand-up for themselves, or even by becoming a brand ambassador for WIN and spread the message that domestic violence needs to be addressed and stamped out, and fast!”