The Safe House, operating within the ‘’Vive Women’’ Therapy and Rehabilitation Center in Tuzla is a secured place for victims of domestic violence. After more than 18 years of quality work, it is now facing financial problems and might be closed.
There are nine Safe Houses in our country, and between 250.000 and 300.000 BAM is required for each of them per year. The Tuzla Safe House is facing financial problems and the situation will be much more complicated next year because the draft budget of the Tuzla Canton (TC) shows that only 30.000 BAM has been allocated for the ‘’Vive Women’’ Center.
Social pedagogue Danijela Kaloci states that the state is obliged to finance this form of care for victims of domestic violence, but the allocations they receive are not enough to cover all the costs on an annual basis.
‘’This attitude of the authorities is humiliating for us, and especially for the victims of violence, who are the most vulnerable category. On this occasion, we appeal to the Government of TC, that is, all government representatives, who have an influence on the creation and adoption of the budget, to increase the funds for co-financing of the Safe House. For many years, we have been under constant threat of being closed, more precisely, restricted to providing accommodation and treatment services for victims of domestic violence, because we do not have constant funding,’’ Kaloci said.
If the Safe House closes, victims of domestic violence will not have adequate protection.
‘’If there is a victim of violence with a child who was kicked out of the house during the night, the Social Welfare Center can act in an advisory manner, the police station can file a report for domestic violence, but they have no place for accommodating the victim, because there are no other accommodation facilities for those cases,’’ said Kaloci.
Since the beginning of this year until today, 230 people have requested the support of the Safe House in Tuzla, of which 40 women and 17 children have been admitted for the treatment caused by life-threatening domestic violence. During all past years, some men, who have also been victims of violence, have asked for help.
‘’These are mostly the victims who had been experiencing psychological, physical or sexual violence for many years. They come from Tuzla, Kalesija, Zivinice, Srebrenik… Besides receiving treatment at the Safe House, which includes psychosocial support, legal counseling, medical support, and physical protection, we also offer psychotherapy services to those clients who are not accommodated in the Safe House,” said Selma Tufekcic, a social worker at this Safe House, Klix.ba portal reports.
