During the first trimester of 2023. associates of IZ KRUGA VOJVODINA provided specialized consultant SOS support services every work day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Overall, they delivered 124 specialized consultant SOS support services that included various types of support. Most services were referrals to other institutions, offices, and services (44,35%), followed by empowerment (36,29% ), and the least providing information (19,35%). All types of services were provided to women without disabilities in approximately the same percentage, whereas women with disabilities received the most referrals to other offices and services, followed by empowerment services and giving information the least.
Services are provided in spoken and written format through different channels: conversation via the mobile network (49.19%), conversation via mobile phone – Viber (14.52%), talk via landline (11.29%), correspondence via email (7.26%), exchange messages via mobile phone – Viber (6.45%), face-to-face conversation (5.65%), correspondence via Facebook messenger (4.03%) and SMS messages via mobile phone – network (1.61%).
The highest number of women with and without disabilities asked for and received a service via correspondence by mobile phone. However, certain discrepancies in these two groups were noticed. Women without disabilities, apart from talking via the mobile network, choose to converse via landline, correspondence via an e-mail, and SMEs via the mobile networks, whereas women with disabilities select different channels: a conversation and correspondence via Viber app, talking face to face, Facebook messenger and e-mail.
Beneficiaries that were given support in the first trimester of 2023. were exposed to various types of violence: physical, economic, sexual, psychological, threats, control, persecution, Cyber violence, and discrimination. Women without disabilities most often reported physical violence and women with disabilities about economic and psychological violence. Each woman that addressed the organization experienced psychological violence. Women that were given services suffered violence from different perpetrators: husband/partner, ex-husband/partner, son, brother, mother, children, parents, mother-in-law, grandson, neighbor, boss, and nurse.
27 women received services in the first trimester, out of which 18 were with disabilities (66,67%) and 9 were without disabilities (33,33%). Women with disabilities that received services during the first trimester were, in most cases, with sensory disability (44,44%), followed by physical disability (33,33%), and a fewer number with chronic (16,67%) or rare disease (5,56%).
Women who were provided with the services came from different towns, belonged to different age groups, and had diverse employment and marital status, more often with (66,67%) but also without children (33,33%).
Approximately half of the women provided specialized consultant SOS support services in the first trimester of 2023. were from Novi Sad (48,15%), but a high percentage of calls were from other places in Serbia (51,85% out of the total number of calls).
Compared to the same period last year, when 99 services were provided for 22 beneficiaries, the number of provided services has risen by approximately 20%.
Specialized consultant SOS support services in the first trimester of 2023. provided by the team of associates from IZ KRUGA VOJVODINA were supported by the Dutch foundation Mama Cash, the Serbian foundation Reconstruction Women’s Fund, and OPENS in partnership with UNICEF for services for young women.
