Domestic abuse was the topic of the publicistic show of TV Telecable “60 minutes” the previous Wednesday. Then the project of Crime Prevention Fund - IGA “Increasing the capacity of institutions and NGOs in Pazardzhik judicial region for dealing with the problem of domestic abuse and effective implementation of programmes under article 6, paragraph 7 from LPDA” was presented.
Mariana Boyrikova – coordinator of Fund IGA, Valentina Gesheva – manager of CSRI of Fund IGA, Rada Elenkova – representative of the Bulgarian centre for gender surveys – Plovdiv and coordinator of the Centre for Social Services and Yancho Dryanov – jurist, part of the team of the Centre for consultation, guidance and support for victims of domestic abuse were guests on the show. The project was presented by Mariana Boyrikova who accented on the establishment of the Centre for consultation, guidance and support where the experts of Fund IGA work with the victims of domestic abuse. The jurist of the Centre explained both the Law for protection of domestic abuse and the active practices and Valentina Gesheva explained the specific character of the work with the perpetrators.
Rada Elenkova from the Bulgarian centre for gender surveys commented on the problem of domestic abuse – its characteristics, types, causes and factors which account for the problem, as well as the work with the victims of abuse. The monitoring and the surveys show that at present our country lack homogeneous methodology and practice to render psycho-social support to the perpetrators of violence. The possibilities for inclusion and guidance of these individuals in specialized individual or group corrective programmes in the community are limited. The resources which the judicial system command and the development of an effective mechanism for a recommended guidance of the perpetrators by the court to specialized centres and teams to include them in corrective and psycho-social programmes are not used in this respect at present.
The project is realized at the territory of Pazardzhik judicial region and the source of financing is the Ministry of Justice. Its main aim is to reduce the number of acts of domestic abuse and the negative consequences on the victims and on the community at the territory of Pazardzhik judicial region.