English - Pharos

Working through the War

Trajectories of Non-Governmental and Governmental Organizations Engaged in Psycho-social Assistance to Victims of War and Family Violence in the ex-Yugoslav States

By Dubravka Zarkov, Admira, 2005

In Working through the War experiences of organisations in the countries of the Former Yugoslavia that were trained by Admira are brought together. Workers from these organizations reflect on their work with refugees and women war victims during the war, and their work on (sexual) violence against women and family violence after the war. They also look back on their cooperation with Admira during the war and post war period. They do so in relation to the objectives of Admira in cooperating with them: firstly, to strengthen women’s health organizations. Secondly, to assist main-stream (non-)governmental health organisations to recognize the value of gender-focused work. And finally, to support cooperation and networking between various governmental and non-

governmental organisations in order to make the support for survivors of war and family violence better integrated and more effective.
The workers who are interviewed in this book share their experiences and talk about their organizational and personal histories and struggles. Some of them are the founders of an NGO, some joined at a later stage, others are workers in a governmental body. They all come from different professional and personal backgrounds. They have set up SOS help lines and shelters for women and children; they have started self help groups and psycho social assistance; they work on prevention and healing; they offer counselling and therapy; they work with survivors and perpetrators of violence and lobby for effective legislation and recognition of women’s rights.
By presenting their stories we hope that other organizations, local or international, working in war-torn and post-war societies on the issues of war and family violence, will feel inspired and will be able to learn from their mistakes and successes.

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