The project is coordinated by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson (OEOO) in partnership with:

• the Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI);
• the Centre for Equality Advancement (CEA);
• the social advertising agency Nomoshiti and
• the associated partners: Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and the Lithuanian Medical Association.

Project team (from left to right): Ugnė Grigaitė (project coordinator), Paulius Rymeikis (creative director), Mintautė Jurkutė (project manager), Mažvydas Karalius (assistant), Donatas Paulauskas (project coordinator and expert)

Aims

‘Stop Violence Against Women: From (A)wareness to (Z)ero Victim Blaming’ aims to raise awareness of domestic violence (by showing that it is of concern to everyone) and empower survivors to take their destiny in hand and find solutions.

The project’s main objectives are to develop targeted information and implement practical empowerment actions, education activities and awareness-raising to increase understanding of different forms of violence against women and stop the blaming of victims. Its ultimate goals are to help promote zero tolerance of violence against women and to improve gender equality.

By using the framework of the ‘theory of change’, the project aims to find practical solutions to complex social issues. This will be achieved by implementing 3 specific goals:

• Empowering victims of violence against women and women at risk by developing key messages and more effective communication tools to increase women’s ability to recognise violence and trigger motivation to reach out for help.
• Enabling professionals, by providing training and developing practical information, to ensure sensitive support for victims of violence and give input to violence prevention.
• Raising public awareness by informing the general public about various forms of violence and challenging victim-blaming attitudes within society.

Methodology & results

The Consortium has developed a platform, https://www.visureikalas.lt/en, divided into 3 sections:

1. “I Need Help” - for domestic violence survivors;
2. “I Want to Help” - for bystanders and family member;
3. “For Professionals” - with information for healthcare providers, social workers, child protection services and journalists on how to provide all necessary support for survivors of domestic violence. In addition, the first virtual forum for women (‘women to women’) is now available.

The platform was introduced along with 3 national public service advertising campaigns:

• “This is (also) violence” (about different forms of domestic violence). The video of this campaign has received the national advertising award, ‘Adrenaline’, with a silver arrow for the best director's work (this was the highest award in 2018). 
• “Support Survivors” (on victim blaming in Lithuania). The campaign was nominated for the 2018 National Equality and Diversity Awards.
• “Women to Women” (about the importance of peer support in finding solutions to domestic violence).

All videos have subtitles available in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish and Russian.

Photo from the awards ceremony – the director of the video Justas Ramanauskas with the award in the hand (left) and the produser Rokas Jasinskas (right)