Contributed by: Liliya Sazonova, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

Capacity Building and Programme Development funded by Novib Foundation/MATRA programme of the Dutch government was a two-year project of Animus Association Foundation (AAF) and was successfully completed in December 2005.

The main aim of the project was the sustainable development of AAF as a civil organization, which fills a significant gap in the public sector through the provision of psychological and social support to women, adolescents and children victims of violence and protection of their human rights. The project ensured the development of the core programmes of the Rehabilitation Centre for Women, Adolescents and Children Survivors of Violence.

Results achieved for the period 1 January - 31 December 2004:

2,444 clients contacted the Rehabilitation Centre for Women, Adolescents and Children Survivors of Violence in 2004.

1. Counselling and Therapeutic Programmes

The counselling programmes are a priority of the organization as part of the direct work with survivors of violence.

There were 330 new clients, who addressed the counselling and therapeutic programmes. 215 of them received consultations on the telephone at the reception and were referred to other services and/or the Crisis Unit. 115 used the programmes in 1,090 therapeutic and counselling sessions. 82 of the new clients contacted us because of a problem of domestic violence, 19 for sexual violence, 7 for trafficking, and 6 for another type of violence.

2. Help-line

The Help-line is a 24-hour programme providing emotional support, information for specialized services, prevention information, crisis intervention via telephone and legal consultations for women, adolescents and children at risk or survivors of violence, or people calling on their behalf.

During the reporting period there were 1,579 calls. The largest number of calls were related to domestic violence (936). The number of calls related to trafficking in women was 300. The number of calls related to child abuse and abuse of adolescents was 126.

3. Crisis Unit

This programme offers support in a crisis situation to women, adolescents and children survivors of violence.

It provides 24-hour psychological support for coping with a crisis resulting from violence experienced, accommodation and social assistance for meeting the basic needs of the survivors. The Crisis Unit provides suitable accommodation and services not only for women but also for their small children and babies.

In 2004, 293 clients survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and trafficking in women were consulted within 895 sessions at the Crisis Unit. 101 women and 70 children were provided with crisis accommodation.

Considerable success was achieved in supporting our clients in finding employment. The clients of the Crisis Unit continued using the individual empowerment consultations for stimulating initiative, professional orientation and improving their ability for coping with the main problem in finding employment and achieving financial independence.

The clients of the Crisis Unit are in a state of an emotional crisis, usually accompanied by financial difficulties; this necessitates close cooperation between the Crisis Unit and the social programme.

In 2004, the Crisis Unit received financial support from the European Network of the Women in the Police in Holland. On March 8, they made a donation of 5,704 Euros for women and adolescent survivors of trafficking for the purpose of forced prostitution.

4. Social Programme

The team of the social programme continued its main activities under the project. 291 clients used the social programme (1,483 hours of social work). 153 of the clients used other programmes of the Centre, as well. 117 of the clients of the social programme received humanitarian aid in the form of cash, food, medicines, transport fares, etc.

The work with the clients of the social programme was directed to meeting their basic needs. This included finding long-term accommodation, access to medical services, hospital placement, access to services provided by institutions and organizations in the country, providing information about their rights and support in the process of their rehabilitation. The team continued working in cooperation with professionals from the network of relevant institutions providing services in support to survivors of violence including the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the State Agency for Child Protection, the Social Assistance Directorates, the different structures of the Ministry of Interior, including police stations in Sofia and the country, border police, missing persons departments, National Service for Combating Organised Crime, etc.

5. Social Club and Correspondence Programme

During the reported period, the correspondence programme went through considerable changes. A team of 7 volunteers was writing letters, and a member of the Animus staff coordinated their work. 63 letters were written to support 37 women survivors of violence.

The social club continued functioning with its members taking part in the correspondence programme, prevention and lobby activities, social work and support for the administrative team.

6. Institutional Development

The Board of Directors had its regular meeting on 14 February 2004. At this meeting, the Board approved the Annual Report for 2003 and, after extensive discussions, it was decided that the purchase of a house for the Rehabilitation Centre should be made as it could be a very valuable asset for the organization and will give the team security and guarantee some stability in the future. In April, the purchase of the house was finalised and the deeds for the house were signed. In February/March, the organisation had an external evaluation with an independent consultant. The organisational consultation was extremely useful for the Animus team, as it defined some of the problems and the need for changes in the organisation.  Also, it began a process for discussing the most appropriate ways of achieving the best results.

The process of strategic planning continued after the evaluation and a number of important decisions about the organisation were taken. The decisions were based on the findings of the external evaluation, which the team members considered very carefully and developed further.

In July, Animus Association received from the State Agency for Child Protection at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy a license for working with children. According to this license, the staff of Animus Association are authorized to work with children in providing therapy, social support, crisis intervention and accommodation within the Crisis Unit.

On November 21, Animus Association celebrated its 10th anniversary. It was marked with a press conference. The event was widely covered in the media, and the government and municipal institutions and organisations expressed once again their recognition of the professionalism of the Animus staff and their confidence in the future stable development of the organisation.

7. Training Centre

The Training Centre team conducted 109 training events with 950 participants.

The catalogue of the Training Unit was printed. It describes 18 training modules divided in five categories. The catalogue was printed in Bulgarian, English and Russian, the languages in which the Training Centre provides training. It was disseminated among government institutions and NGOs in the country and abroad.

New modules have also been developed which will be included in the next edition of the Catalogue.

The Training Centre of AAF continued working with the main universities providing courses in psychology and social work. During the reporting period, 41 students from Sofia University, New Bulgarian University and the Medical College did their practical studies at AAF.

The main users of the Training Centre continued to be NGOs working on the problems of violence against women or involved with gender issues, specialists from government institutions - police, child protection departments, the regional Inspectorate at the Ministry of Education, school psychologists; students in the humanities, and; women and girls at risk of trafficking.

The cooperation between the Training Unit the Academy of the Ministry of Interior was very active.

During the reporting period, trainers from AAF delivered 8 lectures for 165 police officers from Departments "Missing persons", "Working with Minors" and "Crime against the person".

8. Lobby, Prevention, Networking

In 2004, Animus Association continued its activities in the following areas: lobbying in connection with the new legislation, networking with other NGOs, working with the media and the institutions for popularizing the organization and its activities.

During the year, 14 interviews were given for popular television stations, 19 interviews for radio stations and materials about the organization were published in 11 newspapers and 5 magazines.

Within the lobby and networking activities of Animus Association Foundation, representatives of the organization had 16 meetings with representatives of government organizations, 17 meetings with representatives of NGOs, 18 meetings with representatives of International organizations and took part in 17 international conferences in Bulgaria and abroad.

Representatives of Animus took part in the workgroups for the development of regulations on the functioning of the National Commission and for the creation of regulations on the functioning of the centres and shelters for survivors of trafficking, where they worked as equal partners with representatives of the government institutions.

Compiled from: Animus Association's website ( http://www.animusassociation.org/ ), Annual Report for 2004