On Friday, February 26, 2021the Governor discussed the implementation of the project to create a women's shelter with Olga Chistyakova, the chairman of the regional branch of the "Union of Women of Russia".
She reported that the need for places in such a house had been assessed. The premises of the Pokrov Crisis Centre and of the Integrated Emergency Social Assistance Centre in Penza are already being used for this purpose.
"Women's need for a hostel, where they could shelter during a family conflict, recover without fear for their own lives and their children's safety, may be higher than we think," the Governor said.
"Many of them are simply afraid of publicity, they are embarrassed that their relatives will find out about what happened, or are simply not sufficiently informed," he added. "We need as much information support as possible for this project, women should know that public organisations, the government and social services will help them. It is necessary to help women in trouble."
Ivan Belozertsev emphasised the need to carefully consider all the stages of assistance to domestic violence victims.
"A woman has a conflict at home, her husband is drunk, so she grabs the children and runs out into the street. And how can she get to the shelter or the crisis centre? She may not have any money at that moment. We need to allocate funds either to public organisations or by a special regional programme to conclude agreements with taxi services for a woman with children to be brought to the destination. The costs would be later offset", - the Governor stated.
"The next point: they spent the night in a hostel and in the morning they need something to eat, they need a lawyer, they need a psychologist, they need good advice, they need support," Ivan Belozertsev stressed. "They need to write an appeal to the police for them to carry out their work from preventive measures up to prosecution. We need to involve the commissioners for human rights, for the rights of the child."
Olga Chistyakova thanked the Governor for the trust in the regional branch of the "Union of Women of Russia" and informed him that cooperation with the regional ministries of labour, social protection and demography, as well as education and health has already started.
"In the near future we will be able to present a complete timeline for the "Women's Shelter" project," she said.
"Our main task is to give a woman the opportunity to stay in a calm, safe environment, to solve problems," Ivan Belozertsev summed up. "We must help them."
