EBU DAPHNE PROJECT 2003
Second seminar 19-21 November 2003, Athens, Greece
Report on project activities and results in the Netherlands
By Birgitta Blokland and Mildred Theunisz
The Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted
1. Introduction.
With this report we would like to inform you about the activities
undertaken in the Netherlands and the plans for a possible follow up of
the Daphne project in our country.
First we will give a short overview of the situation on violence against
women in the Netherlands in general and what kind of steps are taken by
the government and institutions to prevent and combat violence against
women. This will give you some background on how violence against women
is dealt with in Dutch society.
After this overview we will inform you about the questionnaire and the
responses, then about the peer groups and the self defence workshops,
promotion, publicity and information. Finally we would like to share our
plans for follow-up activities.
2. Situation in the Netherlands concerning violence against women
It proved quite problematic to get a good and complete overview of
figures about violence against women in general, let alone disabled
women. There are researches done about sexual harassment, there are
figures about violence at home – domestic violence. This could be sexual
violence, but also physical and psychological violence. There are
figures from police reports about violence in the street. And then some
10 years ago research was done on sexual intimidation at the work place.
But each of these researches were done in different ways, which makes
comparison of the results impossible. There is some idea about violence
against disabled people, but that is mostly about mentally disabled
persons. In addition some of the figures found are quite old.
Nonetheless we will try to give an indication about the situation in the
Netherlands.
From different researches on violence at home one can see that 45% of
family members have experience with this kind of violence. Men as often
as women. A research done in 1997 shows that approximately 200.000 women
each year are victim of some form of physical and/or sexual violence at
home. Violence at home is still a taboo, and it is difficult for victims
to talk about it or do something about it.
Another research showed that 27% percent of migrant women have
experienced violence at home. Of the 1000 native Dutch women in that
research 35% say they experienced physical violence. This is however
contrary to the figures of special protection homes for women and their
children that have experienced violence.
60% of the women in these houses are migrant women. That does not mean
that they experience more violence. It could also mean that native Dutch
women can more often go to friends or relatives to feel safe. There are
108 special protection homes for these women and their children in the
Netherlands.
In 2001 more then 10.000 women and children stayed in such a protection
home. More than 12.000 women had to be rejected in that year because the
homes were full, had no capacity to offer safety. It has to be said that
the situation must be very very bad before a woman decides to leave and
go to such a home for protection.
What kind of provisions are there for women and what does the government
in the Netherlands do?
First of all there are several free telephone lines were people can talk
anonymously about their problems. There are special lines for women and
for children for example. These telephone lines are advertised a lot in
all sorts of media and languages to inform as many people as possible.
Some 10 years ago there was a lot to do about sexual harassment at the
work place. The government took this issue seriously with the result
that all companies and wok places have to have a policy on sexual
intimidation. How to prevent it, to combat it and what to do when
someone has experienced this kind of violence. Complaints can be filed
and are dealt with by a objective committee and even go to court. The
government promoted this policy widely and over several years. At the
moment the government is busy with a policy paper on violence at home.
How to prevent, what must be done to make it more known and more easily
talked about etc.
On the other hand our new government has decided that because of the
economy being in a recession, a lot of activities have to be minimised.
Figures on or special attention for violence against disabled people in
general are hardly available at the moment. And certainly not widespread
or known amongst people with disabilities and their organisations.
3. Situation in the Netherlands concerning violence against visually
impaired women
The questionnaire gave us some insight in the prevalence and sort of
violence visually impaired women experience or have experienced in the
Netherlands. First of all I would like to inform you how we handled the
questionnaire. a) Content
We made two versions of the questionnaire, one for the EBU DAPHNE
website and one for national dissemination with two additional
questions:
one to the first six questions as ´e´: ¨If answered with yes, where did
the act of violence take place?¨ We felt it important to know where the
women feel or are, the most vulnerable to violence. The results form a
basis for the discussion groups when talking about possible ways to
combat violence. These answers are also used in the self defence
workshop for practicing techniques in different surroundings and
situations.
The second added question concerns the part of the questionnaire in
which we explore the interest of women to take part in the activities of
the discussion groups and self defence training, on their interest in
becoming a member to the solidarity network.
b) Dissemination
The Netherlands know many organisations of the blind. The Federation of
the Blind and Partially Sighted, is formed by six of these
organisations. Each member organisation has its own identity and
independent activities. The Federation has an umbrella function and
deals with activities that concern the interest of all member
organisations. This structure means, that each organisation has its own
data base with names and contact details of its members. The Federation
has no direct access to these data bases. We therefore needed some extra
time to get in touch and to either receive contact details and then send
direct mails to the female members, or ask the cooperation of
memberorganisations to send on the questionnaire to their female
members. This proved too inpractical and to take too long, so we decided
to go for two other options at the same time, in order to reach as many
female members as possible in the shortest possible time:
1. sending information and the questionnaire by email
2. sending information and the questionnaire through the organisations´
newsletters and magazines.
1. emails with information on the EBU Daphne project and the
questionnaire were sent to the member organisations with the request to
forward it to their female members. However, not all member
organisations have the e-mail addresses of their members.
2. articles were written on the EBU Daphne project for the different
magazines and newsletters, and the questionnaire with information
included. This way of dissemination meant it reached a wide public, both
women and men. However, this did not result in completed questionnaires
from men or sighted readers being sent to us.
c) Answers
Women could send in the completed questionnaires by e-mail, mail or give
by telephone.
Everywhere the website of the Daphne project was mentioned with the
invitation to fill out the questionnaire on-line. Those who wanted to
answer by email, could request a word or text version of the
questionnaire, and receive it by email, or by regular mail.
The Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially sighted also
offered the possibility to answer the questionnaire by telephone, at the
same number where also information can be obtained on the EBU DAPHNE
project and on everything else that has to do with visual impairment.
Only women are working at this telephone line and one of them was
especially appointed to deal with phone calls on the project and the
questionnaire and this worked really well.
d) Results
Later on in this seminar the results of the questionnaires will be
presented. However, first some remarks on the results for the
Netherlands.
28 women completed the questionnaire in the Netherlands. That might not
seem to be a high figure. But one must realise that there are more then
600.000 people with an visual disability in the Netherlands of which
approximately 12.000 are member of one of the six organisations of the
blind. With limited means and time, and with the complicating structure
of our federation, it is difficult to reach a high number of visually
impaired people, let alone visually impaired women.
In addition to the dissemination we mentioned above, we also put the
questionnaire and information on the EBU Daphne project on the website
of the libraries for the blind and also of the national disability
council in order to try and reach as many as possible women from our
targetgroup.
The age of the respondents runs from 17 to 77 with 5 women under 25, 10
in the age of 25 to 40 years, 10 women in the age of 40 till 65 and
above. Three did not answer that question.
Most of the women that answered the questionnaire did have experience
with psychological violence or know women that are experiencing this
kind of violence. Physical violence was less mentioned. When asked about
other forms of violence, women referred to sexual violence and abuse.
When looking at the locations that women indicated where they have had
experience with violence, the following were mentioned:
- on the street
- in public transport, stations and bus stops
- school
It is tragic and shocking to see that visual impaired women also
experience violence at the rehabilitation centre, in their own
organisation of blind and partially sighted people, during sport events
for visually impaired people, and even at the residences they are living
in.
We used these answers on locations where women are more vulnerable in
the self defence work shops and the peer group meetings.
4. Peer groups and self defence workshop
We decided to combine the self-defence course and the peer group
meetings because the majority of the women was interested in both of
them. Besides we know from experience that people are very busy and it
will be difficult for them to attend the activities separately at
different dates.
We also think that by doing the exercises in the self defence course,
people will start talking about the subject anyway. And vice versa, when
talking about violence against visually impaired women one will want to
learn and practice some exercises on how to act in particular
situations, attitudes to feel stronger and safer and prevent violence.
The two activities are linked to each other and even intertwined.
The women that are interested in either or both activities come from all
over the Netherlands. We did not choose to organise regional sessions
because the group is not too big so that we would need to divide it, and
Holland is a small country where travelling to a central point is easy
and not too time consuming. Instead, we decided to have the originally
ten sessions as they are mentioned in the project description, together,
during three days on a national level. The sessions as originally
mentioned in the project were flexible and after consultation with the
project manager this dutch variety was okayed.
The activities take place at an amongst visually impaired people very
well known centre in Utrecht, a city in the centre of the Netherlands
and easy to reach.
Around 20 women will attend the sessions that are organised on three
Saturdays.
The self defence course will be given by professionally trained women in
self defence who hav experience working with visually impaired people.
The peer groups will be chaired by a visually impaired woman. In this
peer group sessions the emphasis will lie on (after introduction on the
results of the questionnaire):
- can we prevent violence and how
- how to prevent to get in a vulnerable situation
- suggestions on how to combat violence
- how to handle certain situations and how to act
- what can be done and by whom, practical solutions, the role of our
Federation, the network etc
The goal will be to exchange practical ideas and suggestions.
It could well be that women want to share experiences of violence and
there will of course be possibility to talk about it. But we would also
like for the participants some concrete practical outcomes which are of
use to them in eveyday life. And we also want to make the discussions
interesting for women who participate and have not experienced violence.
From these activities a small network – as a start- will be formed in
which the women can continue to stay in touch to exchange ideas and
information about the subject and to become active in advising our
organisation on the violence and women.
At the end of the sessions the programme will be evaluated by the
participants and plans will be made by them on how to work further with
this and a plan for a follow up on the EBU Daphne project in the
Netherlands. Thess plans will be presented to the Board of the
Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted.
5. Promotion, publicity and information
Articles
In several newsletters and magazines of organisations of the blind and
partially sighted, articles on the EBU Daphne project were published.
• Macula Visie (MD group)
• Mensen Lezen
• Gidslijnen (NVBS)
• Anders Bekeken (NVBS)
• Kortschrift
• CG-raad Nieuws – magazine of the National Disability Council
Several press releases were sent to the media.
These articles were followed up throughout the project.
Telephone Information line
Information on the EBU DAPHNE project can be obtained through the
Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted telephone
information line where the answers to the questionnaire were also taken.
Website
a. EBU DAPHNE website
Dutch version plus information is included under the corresponding page
of the general website: www.ebudaphne.nl.
b. national website
Dutch version of the project information and the questionnaire is
included in our Federation website, with a link to the EBU DAPHNE
website.
c. anderslezen.nl
This is the website of the Dutch libraries for the blind. Project
information and the questionnaire can also be found on this website .
www.anderslezen.nl
All three websites are updated with information and news on the projects
progress in the Netherlands, in Dutch for all three.
Press
A regional radio station did an interview with Mildred Theunisz at the
beginning of the EBU Daphne project about the activities and goals. At
the end of the project another interview is scheduled to inform about
the results. Also some magazines that have published the questionnaire
have shown interest to do an article on the outcomes and plans for the
future.
6. Concluding
The way the Federation is organised made it difficult, time consuming
and costly to reach all female members. That was one of the reasons for
the somewhat low figure of returned questionnaires. Also a lot of
visually impaired people are not affiliated to one of the six member
organisations and are therefore very difficult to reach. With articles
in magazines and websites of several other organisation we tried to
overcome this problem.
The Federation treated the data from the returned questionnaires as a
starting point and an indication of prevalence of violence against
visually impaired women in the Netherlands. The results of the
questionnaire are used as topics to discuss in the peer group meetings.
The gathered information is also used in the self defence workshops for
role plays and specific techniques.
The women are enthusiastic to participate, especially for the self
defence workshops. With the combination of discussion and training we
think that we have offered the women an interesting and useful programme
from which they can benefit more than if they were offered separately.
At the same time the results prove important input for our organisation
to deal with this important and up til now invisible topic of violence.
The ideas given at the discussion groups and needs expressed on what
actions should be taken, can be included in the agenda of our board and
actions initiated. When evaluating the activities with the participants
we will ask the women if they feel that a follow up is needed and we
will ask them to help us think what this follow up should or could
consist of.
We provide the service of setting up the Daphne support network, which
will hopefully become and independent and permanent network as result of
the EBU Daphne project. The network could form the expert group when we
would decide to undertake a follow up project, and in general, have the
function of ´watchdog´ for the Federation activities in the field of
violence.
Depending on the outcomes of the final evaluation the Federation sees
this EBU Daphne project as a start for more activities in this area: to
break taboos, to make violence against blind and partially sighted
people visible and to combat it.
d
THE
NETHERLANDS