Search results

Sexual violence is an inconspicuous but powerful and destructive weapon that the occupying forces use against Ukrainians, say the specialists of the Center for Helping the Survivors, a specialized service of the MARTIN club that works with victims. 274 cases of conflict-related sexual violence (SNPK) have been recorded by the Prosecutor General's Office since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. This is far from always rape, but also any other acts of a sexual nature related to war. Hanna Tartynskyi, the coordinator of the Center for Helping the Survivors, says that the SNPK is most often experienced in captivity or under occupation: "Some criminal acts are not recognized by the person as sexual violence. Forced exposure, intimidation of rape and humiliation and blackmail with a certain sexual context, forced pregnancy or abortion, forcing to contemplate the suffering of another person - all these are sexual violence during conflict." The Russian occupiers use SNPK as a means of intimidating civilians to achieve certain military goals. They do not seek sexual pleasure, but want to humiliate, torture, subjugate the will. Victims often feel guilty for what happened to them. Although in reality, there was simply no other choice in those circumstances, explains Andriy Baev, a psychologist at the Center for Helping the Survivors: "The victims of the criminal actions of the Russian military are under no circumstances responsible for their actions. It is almost always a matter of survival. And human life is much more important than social prejudices." The real number of victims of the SNPK is much higher than the official statistics. These are war crimes, and therefore they have no statute of limitations. You can contact the law enforcement agencies even after a year, two, five or ten years, says Yulia Szegeda, a human rights defender and lawyer at the Center for Helping Survivors: "You can submit a statement that a person has been injured at any time. Today, people who have survived SNPK can receive not only psychological satisfaction, but also material satisfaction through reparations and intermediate reparations introduced in Ukraine to support victims of SNPK ". The Center for Helping Survivors in Dnipro guarantees confidentiality. Specialists will help overcome the psychological consequences of violence. And also contact the law enforcement officers and record the fact of the crime - but only if the person himself wants it. The Center for Helping Survivors in Dnipro is located at 32 Voskresenska Street. Phone number 0992452121 The Center for Helping Survivors in the Dnipro was created on the initiative of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, with the assistance of the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, in partnership with UNFPA, the UN Population Fund in Ukraine, thanks to the financial support of the governments of Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, in cooperation with local authorities and the MARTIN-club NGO.

The mobile brigade received a report from the police about domestic violence against a young woman by her mother. During an emergency visit to the victim's address, the mobile team of social and psychological assistance found out that she was in a depressed state, said that she did not see the point of living any longer, and, according to her, was even thinking of ending her life. During the conversation, she said that she has been living under psychological pressure since childhood. The situation in the family worsened after the death of her father, life became unbearable for her. She hoped for an improvement in relations, so she agreed to her sister's persuasion and mother's promises and gave up her share of the apartment through a notary. But from that moment, according to her, she became completely powerless in her family. Her mother and sister could not let her into the apartment after work, the locks were changed several times, they were not allowed to use gas and water, she could not wash and wash her clothes. Relatives did everything possible to get the woman to leave the apartment. The victim's physical and psychological condition led to the fact that she lost her job and because of this, her mother denied her food. During the meeting with our specialists, she cried and said that she had not slept for three nights. The mobile brigade offered to get a job at the city's Day Center for victims of domestic and gender-based violence, issued a winter set of dignity. Our specialists accompanied the woman to the crisis room of the Day Center, where the tired victim slept for more than a day. During her stay in the safe place, the woman was provided with psychological and legal counseling, the calm environment and the safe place helped the woman decide on her plans for the future. Now she lives in the regional center, got a job. She says that she is grateful to everyone who helped her make such a decision and get out of the circle of psychological and economic violence in the family Mobile teams work with the support of UNFPA, the UN Population Fund in Ukraine, in coordination with the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine. The services of mobile brigades are provided thanks to the financial support of the governments of the USA (USAID Office of Humanitarian Assistance), Canada, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark and the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine (UHF). * the photo is illustrative

Program of the art festival Horizontal 4.0. The festival will be held on November 24 at 1:00 p.m. in the premises of the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture Krutohirny Uzviz, 21a Horizontal 4.0 is dedicated to the people who, in the face of war, do not give up, seek and find help, and those of us who provide that help. At the festival, the MARTIN Club will present all relevant services, tell about its history, and provide an opportunity to participate in most of the activities currently held by the MARTIN Club for people. #horizontalfest #dccc #martinclub #csomartinclub #festival #dnipro

The youngest of all, Ihor Lyovkin, was 3 years old when, together with his brother Kostyantyn, who had already turned 9, they came to our social service to warm up and have a hot meal. A whole dozen of young guests stank so much that our eyes popped out. The condition under which they could enter the premises was to leave their drugs, glue and varnish in bags on the floor in the corridor. This did not help at all: the smell of acetone, boiled to the bottoms of pants, palms eaten by scabies, ears that had never seen water stood like a trunk above house 83 on Botanic Vavilov Street. One of the boys hit Igor on the cap, and a huge cloud of dust flew out of it. "His mother was taken to the morgue." We were paralyzed. Like in the morgue?? Kostya told how he went home to Kirovskoe, entered the house, found Igor and his mother, who were sleeping on the floor, facing the wall. Brother had been hungry for a long time, Kostyl brought him bread and meat. They ate and went to bed. In the morning, Kostya went for a walk again, leaving Igor at home. I came in the evening, my mother was still sleeping. The child realized that something was wrong, called a neighbor, the neighbor called the police. Mother had been dead for four days. Kostya often saw her drunk and considered it lucky that she did not touch them and slept. This time forever. The boys' sister, Marina, was already living in a foster family at the time, and she did not survive this horror with her brothers. The children waited for the ambulance, then at night they walked along the road to Makiivka. There was no point in staying at home: neither food, nor warmth, nor a mother, nor a conscious adult who would at least take her to the police department or the hospital. The next day at noon, they were already sitting in our office and eating mushroom soup... Igor was sent to an asylum ( Irina Sibileva , do you remember him?). AND Kostya ran and ran, and since the child was not local, everyone had to sneeze, they didn't look for him. Kostya lived in the Martin Club from time to time. And with us, he couldn't stand it, he would rush out into the street to "puff", he was emotional, kind and very attached to Kuzbas-lac. Tanks with this liquid stood in his native town on the territory of the zone. Someone brought it there and didn't use it. The most gifted business children risked their lives and climbed into the tank with varnish, inhaling vaporized acetone, scooped the varnish into bags, brought it to Makiivka and sold it to their friends for money. Money was spent on bread and ...glue Moment. We had a party when our children came one day and complained to us that the nail polish was all dry. It happened two years after the first of them opened this damned Klondike. ...once we played in the theater with the children, staged a home play about seven goats. Kostya crawled under the table, pretending to be a little goat, and from there he turned to the wolf: he got out of here, now my mother the goat will come, she will heap such stars on you for us that your stomach will flake! And Kostya was the only one who loved and could read. He hanged himself in prison when he was 17. He was convicted of murder, which was actually committed by a girl he was in love with. Oksana, nicknamed Shepelyava due to a congenital cleft in her jaw, was pregnant by someone, but she slept in the heating circuit next to Kostyl. Once, out of jealousy, another girl pounced on her, and she stabbed her. Kostya went to the zone for her, and they say that he did not survive captivity. The girl came to us on the eve of the new year. She was 8 months old, with a broken leg, which she got when she jumped out of the window of the venereal dispensary, where she was treated for syphilis. The policemen and doctors brought her from the maternity hospital, because they were afraid to search for her again along the heating lines. It happened right at the time of the Christmas spiral, during which all those present share their dreams for the future. Oksana dreamed of giving birth to a girl in a pink hat, to be a good mother, to have a home and a husband... A month later, we found her daughter among the abandoned newborns in the hospital. My mother was 16. I don't know about her future fate. UPD. Oksana died of drugs at the age of 20 Photo by Andrej Naterer #Donetsk_Dnipro