HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Two more One Stop Service Centres (OSSCs) on June21 were officially launched in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang City to provideintegrated and essential services supporting survivors of gender-based anddomestic violence.

With financial contribution from the Government of Japan, the United Nations PopulationFund (UNFPA) Vietnam contracted the Centre for Studies and Applied Sciences inGender – Family – Women and Adolescents (CSAGA) to establish the OSSCs called“Anh Duong (Sunshine) House”, to detect and prevent violence and supportsurvivors via the hotline 02433335599 operating 24 hours a day.

The OSSC model provides essential, comprehensive and integrated services towomen and girls who are experiencing or are at risk of gender-based anddomestic violence.

It provides a wide range of services, meeting international standards,including health care, psychological support, counselling, social welfareservices, emergency shelters, police protection, legal and justice services andreferrals.

All services are based on the survivor-centred principle, in which survivorsare treated with respect and dignity, and assured of privacy andconfidentiality.

The findings of the UNFPA-supported National Study on Violence against Women inVietnam in 2019 showed nearly 2 in 3 women (62.9 percent) experienced at leastone form of physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence andcontrolling behaviours by their husband in their lifetime.

And half of the women who experienced physical and or sexual violence by ahusband or partner have told no one about it, and most of the women (90.4 percent)experiencing violence did not seek any help.

Therefore, violence against women is very much hidden in Vietnamese society.

Naomi Kitahara, UNFPA Representative for Vietnam, said UNFPA and CSAGA want topromote women’s rights and gender equality and support vulnerable groups,particularly survivors of gender-based and domestic violence.

“We want to ensure that all women and girls in Vietnam, including those mostvulnerable, have the right to live a life free of violence and with dignity,”she said.

By funding the establishment of three centres in Thanh Hoa, Da Nang and HCMCity, the Government of Japan was pleased to have been able to contribute tomitigating the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, making surethat everyone is part of the country’s sustainable development process, saidMinister Okabe from the Embassy of Japan to Vietnam.

“UNFPA’s decision to collaborate with both the Ministry and a non-governmentalorganisation is very innovative as it diversifies the way to reach survivors ofgender-based violence, providing them with integrated services,” he said.

CSAGA’s director Nguyen Van Anh said CSAGA was experienced in supportingsurvivors of gender-based violence through the operation of hotlines andshelters for survivors of violence.

“With support from UNFPA, we are ready to provide integrated services to meetthe needs of any survivors of violence, especially women and girls. We willwork harder to ensure the rights of women and leave no woman behind,” she said.

The first OSSC model was opened in Quang Ninh province in April 2020 by theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) with technical andfinancial support from UNFPA in partnership with the Korea InternationalCooperation Agency (KOICA).

Earlier this year, MOLISA opened one in Thanh Hoa province with support fromUNFPA in partnership with the Government of Japan.

The two centres have so far accommodated more than 450 women and children whoare survivors of gender-based and domestic violence. Each centre receives morethan 1,000 calls a month via the hotlines.

The two new OSSCs in HCM City and Da Nang are an attempt to try out a new modelby CSAGA, while the earlier two are based on the social protection centresunder MOLISA.

Those who are from other neighbouring provinces and cities can also receiveservices from the centres./.