Guarantee Shelters to Victims of Domestic Violence

Shelter space for domestic violence victims is limited and shrinking

Domestic Violence shelter space for domestic violence victims is limited and shrinking as abuse cases continue to rise during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

When we look at the number of domestic violence calls made to our organization, and how many people used our services at our own safe between May 2020 to October 2021 there is a crisis within a crisis in Saint Lucia.

But it is important to keep tracking the numbers to more accurately analyze the trends.

While we did not record any domestic homicides in that period, lack of shelter space for abused victims remains a serious issue and hundreds of people couldn't get immediate shelter or find a place to stay when they sought help. This was due to limited shelter space by both state and NGO’s but also because people were not allowing anyone in their private homes for fear of being infected and then infecting them and their families with COVID.

Despite the frustration at turning people away, the upside is that we have realized there is a serious need and we are working to increase shelter space in the next year, while encouraging the Gov’t to work towards increasing state shelter spaces in their own shelters.

We are working to ensure we don't lose any ground that we've made regarding domestic violence, how victims are treated and how service providers react

Presently we are working on a project to create inter agency collaboration and communication and to synchronize processes and procedures used for the provision of domestic violence support services at both state and NGO levels.

Between January to October, 2021, we provided shelter for approximately 107 persons in our safe spaces, 28 at private off-site spaces and 11 at varying locations. It cost us a total of US$300 per day per client to provide a comprehensive set of support services, we can only continue this work with your help.