Between January and June, the women’s rights organization La Strada Ukraine’s hotline received 5,717 calls, nearly half of them involving domestic violence.
In July, the number of domestic violence calls was 15 times higher than in the previous month, rising in conjunction with the demobilization in the east and soldiers returning home to their families.
The link between combat trauma and domestic abuse is widely established, yet little is being done to help Ukraine’s soldiers to process their psychological issues and reintegrate successfully into their family homes.
La Strada, an international non-governmental organization that has worked in Ukraine for 17 years, runs both the National Toll-Free Hotline on Prevention of Domestic Violence, Human Trafficking and Gender Discrimination and the National Child Toll-Free Hotline. Since the outbreak of war, the hotline has also added problems relating to internally displaced persons to their remit.
From Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, La Strada will join women’s rights organizations around the world in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign. Launched in 1991, the 16 Days campaign falls between International Day Against Violence Against Women and International Human Rights Day, highlighting the importance of combatting violence against women when addressing wider human rights issues.
Research data released by the British Ministry of Defence in 2012 found that one in eight soldiers will commit an act of violence upon returning home, often in a domestic context. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs reports that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are considerably more likely to commit an act of violence against a partner. And in Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russian-backed separatists, each new wave of demobilization brings with it a huge increase in reports of domestic abuse.
Alona Zubchenko, director of communications, explains that La Strada expects this rush of calls to recur every time a new phase of recruits is demobilized.
“The conflict isn’t over and every day people come back from the conflict zone to government-controlled areas,” she says. “They’re back with their families, but they’re back with traumas and a strong need for psychological support. But in Ukraine, we have a stereotype that it’s not good for men. They think that alcohol is the best friend, the best psychologist.”
As part of La Strada’s involvement in the 16 Days campaign, consultants from governmental ministries and the police will temporarily take over the hotline, answering calls from distressed victims of domestic abuse, among others.
Aliona Kryvuliak, Director of Hotlines, hopes that this will open their eyes to certain abuses of power, most notably the repeated refusal of regional police officers to accept complaints from women whose husbands are veterans. She says it’s possible to receive 16 calls like this within one four-hour period.
“When a woman goes to the police and writes a report that she is a victim of domestic violence, and the abuser is her husband who’s back from the ATO zone, the policeman says ‘I don’t want to receive your report because your husband is a hero. He was in the war, he does everything for our country, for you, and for your family,’” she says.
Callers to La Strada’s hotline can receive counselling from psychologists, lawyers and social workers as needed. All employees begin work as volunteers, giving both individuals and the organization a chance to determine whether they will be able to cope with the challenging work full-time.
“Sometimes a caller says that they only want legal help, but our consultants understand that they also need psychological help,” says Kryvuliak. “Mostly we have versatile employees, who can make both legal and psychological consultations.”
The term domestic abuse is typically interpreted as referring to husbands beating their wives, but in fact encompasses any abuse that takes place within a family home. Since the outbreak of war, La Strada has recorded worrying increases not only in wives reporting abuse at the hands of their husbands, but in older parents reporting abuse at the hands of their adult children.
“There are men who are back from the conflict and abuse their parents,” says Kryvuliak. “Older people have the same legal rights as wives who are victims of domestic violence, they also can go to police, but we know that a very low percent of parents can actually go and do this. Mostly, these people want psychological support only.” These emotionally charged cases, often encompassing the problems of drugs and alcohol addiction, are among the hardest for La Strada’s counsellors to deal with.
While some issues, such as those relating to IDPs, are a direct result of the conflict, other problems have simply been exacerbated by the war in the east. A 2010 survey by Women Against Violence Europe, a formal network of women’s NGOs, found that 33% of Ukrainian women had experienced violence since reaching adulthood.
La Strada agrees with these findings, pointing out that many women who call the hotline have been victims of periodic domestic abuse for several years.
A stretched social service budget leaves little room for government-led prevention, despite widespread awareness of the link between combat trauma and domestic violence. La Strada distributes informational materials and tries to raise awareness of the hotline’s willingness to provide guidance on preparing for a soldier’s return home, but otherwise has to focus on counselling existing victims.
“On our hotline we can give help only to the people who call us,” says Kryvuliak, “and usually people call only after the fact of violence.”
La Strada’s National Toll-Free Hotline on Prevention of Domestic Violence, Human Trafficking and Gender Discrimination can be reached at 0800 500 335 from landlines, or at 386 for free from mobile operators Kyivstar, MTS and life:).
Kyiv Post staff writer Sandra MacKenzie can be reached at [email protected]
