GNWS
Executive Committee
Co-Chair: Sue Else, NNEDV, United States of America
Co-Chair: Bandana Rana, Saathi, Nepal
Communication-Awareness Committee Chair: Maria Stetter, Danner, Denmark
Governance-Structure Committee Chair: Pat Vargas, Safe Place, Canada
Policy Committee Chair: Margarita Guille, InterAmerican Network of Women's Shelters, Mexico
Interim Board
The Interim Global Network Board is comprised of the founding networks and programs from Armenia, Australia, Europe, Canada, Denmark, England, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sweden, United States, and Vietnam.
The following individuals have been supported by their organizations in the development of the Global Network of Women’s Shelters.
Armenia
Susanna Vardanyan is the founder and president of the Women’s Rights Centre. The Women’s Rights Centre works to prevent domestic violence against women and their children and to protect women's reproductive and sexual health and rights.
Australia
Women’s Services Network Australia (WESNET) is the national peak body for women’s domestic and family violence services in Australia.
Julie Oberin, National Chairperson of WESNET
Margaret Augerinos, Victorian Representative of WESNET.
Shirley Slann, North Qld Domestic Violence Resource Service
Canada
Tracy Gierman is the Executive Director of the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses, a network of provincial, territorial, regional and aboriginal organizations representing women’s shelters and transition houses.
Jan Reimer is the Provincial Co-ordinator of the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters. The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters is an umbrella organization of all women’s and seniors shelters in the province of Alberta, Canada. We educate, collaborate and support one another to achieve our vision of a world free from violence and abuse. Working with member shelters, we leverage shelter knowledge to champion practical solutions, promising practices, and a continuum of services and strategies that meet the needs of abused women, their children and seniors. ACWS has pioneered many groundbreaking activities in Alberta, across Canada and around the world. We are currently the fiscal agent for the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and for the development of UN Women’s virtual knowledge centre module on women’s shelters. The Alberta Council of Women’s shelters hosted the 1st World Conference in 2008, which attracted more than 800 delegates to exchange practices and learn from one another.
Founded in 1987, the Fédération de ressources d'hébergement pour femmes violentées et en difficulté du Québec (FRHFVDQ) - Québec Federation of Women's Shelters represents thirty-seven shelters. Its mandate is to promote and defend the rights of women who are the victims of domestic violence, have problems related to violence with drug or alcohol abuse, suffer mental health problems or are homelessness as well as working to increase their autonomy. Its objectives are: to offer the necessary support to its member shelters; act as their representative with political authorities as well as with public, parapublic and private institutions; and raise awareness among political authorities and the population at large with respect to the domestic violence women and children face, as well as the role of and need for women’s shelters.
Manon Monastesse, Directrice/Provincial Director of FRHFVDQ
Patricia Vargas is the Executive Director of A Safe Place is a women’s emergency shelter operating in Sherwood Park, Province of Alberta Canada and providing services to women and children. Having opened its doors in 1984, the shelter has developed as one of the few largest in Alberta. The mission of A Safe Palace is, “to end domestic abuse and violence in the lives of women and their children by supporting the shelter, A Safe Place, and impacting public policy through education and awareness.” A Safe Place works with women and children in the shelter as well as with women, children and men in the community to increase their capacity to live independently and abuse-free. To meet the needs of the women and children with whom A Safe Place has contact, and to contribute toward the organization’s vision of safe and healthy families, the shelter has developed numerous programs and services, designed to address the core realities of family violence’s impact. In addition, A Safe Place provides outreach and community support services to women, children and abused men living in the wider community. A Safe Place has been leaders in the province in providing services for women victims of Human Trafficking. A Safe Place is member of the Global Network and the Inter-Americas Network of Women’s Shelters.
Denmark
Danner is a privately funded humanitarian organization, working nationally and internationally on stopping violence against women and children. We are working towards achieving a violence free society. We help women and children live a safer life, replace myths with facts and take active measures to prevent violence.
Vibe Klarup Voetmann, Member of GNWS Governance and Structure Committee, Director of Danner
Maria Stetter, Chair of GNWS Communications and Awareness Committee, Head of Communication in Danner Dutch
England
Women’s Aid is the national charity working to end violence against women and children, co-ordinating a network of over 300 national and local domestic and sexual violence services in England, and campaigning for effective protection from, and prevention of, all forms of gender-based violence. Imkaan is a national organisation, led by black and minority ethnic (BME) women, which works to end violence against BME women.
Marai Larasi is Joint Chair of Women’s Aid Board of Trustees and is also Director of Imkaan.
Nicola Harwin is the Chief Executive Officer of Women’s Aid
Europe
Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)
The WAVE Network is one of the main and most influential European-wide networks of women NGOs (women’s shelter, counselling and intervention centres, women’s helplines, as well as aid organisations for migrant and refugee women). It aims at establishing gender equality by ending all forms of domestic violence against women. WAVE is the only European network focusing solely on the elimination of domestic violence against women and children. WAVE sets out to promote and strengthen the human rights of women and children in general and to prevent violence against women and children in particular. The network comprises approximately 4,000 women's organisations combating violence against women and children in Europe. At the regional and national level 95 focal points form the basis of WAVE. They undertake to disseminate WAVE information regularly to groups within their network, to collate information from their national network and to pass it on to the WAVE network or/and to the other focal points.
Rosa Logar, WAVE Program Coordinator, Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Intervention Centre Vienna, Austria.
Maria Rösslhumer is the Managing Director of WAVE and a director of the Austrian Women´s Shelter Network.
Iceland
Stigamot is a counseling and information Centre on Sexual violence. We are also running shelter for women exciting prostitution and trafficking and providing services regularly in rural areas around the country. The NGO has two equally important aims, to run services for women, survivors of violence and to do feministic society work. Key issues have been to raise consciousness, to empower the women in the grass root, to lobby for better services, professional media work, improved legislation and a Justice system that takes gender based violence seriously.
Gudrun Jonsdottir, founder and a spokesperson for Nordic Women against Violence and is representing Stigamot, Iceland
Israel
Ruth Ozery is the director of Na’amat’s Shelter For Battered Women in Tel Aviv. NA`AMAT strives to achieve equality between the sexes and full participation of women in social, economic and political spheres. NA`AMAT mobilizes and leads women to bring about social changes by initiating campaigns to influence public opinion and increase public awareness.
Italy
The National Association D.i.R.e (Women's Network Against Violence), founded in 2008, is the first Italian Association of independent women's centers and shelters against violence, whose aim is to constitute the first National Coalition to develop and promote the different experiences of all local centers against violence in Italy. It intends to coordinate and promote activities to start and facilitate a cultural change to end violence against women in Italian society. Cultural change starts with acknowledging gender differences, the traditional ideas of family and society (still present today), and deeply rooted power inequality that all contributes to perpetuating male violence against women. D.i.R.e analyzes these cultural elements in an attempt to modify the perception of violence in Italy.
Anna Pramstrahler, Vice-Chair DIRE
Marcella Pirrone is a member of DIRE and a well known lawyer in Bolzano for her efforts regarding women's rights
Mexico
Mexican National Network of Women Shelters in Mexico is an umbrella organization that joins the shelters for women and their children at risk of violence against women and promotes better public policies, programs and services in Mexico and in the American Continent.
Interamerican Network of Women’s Shelters (RIRE) emerged in 2006 and has been consolidating with the pass of the years. It was established for linking and articulating the movement of refuges, shelters and centers which provide specialized services for women who have been victims of gender based violence. It’s goal is to develop a greater impact on public policies, strategies and tools that promote real options for women to access to a safe life free of violence and reinforce women exercise the whole range of rights and full citizenship. The Interamerican Network also has born to promote quality services to victims of violence against women and to reduce the rates of femicide suffered by various countries in the continent. The Network would like to contribute to create minimum quality standards and attention criteria, exchanging models and experiences and promoting the development of skills and referencing international cases. Currently there are 17 countries participating actively in the region, including Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala, Austria, Chile, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Ecuador, United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Venezuela, Colombia, Perú, Nicaragua, Honduras.
Margarita Guillé Tamayo, Chair of GNWS Policy Committee, President of the InterAmerican Network of Women's Shelters
Rosa María Salazar is the Director of Red Nacional de Refugios (RNR) an umbrella organization that works to unify and represent the interests of the refuges in Mexico, promoting gender equality and the defense of the human rights of women and their children. They work to improve public policies, programs and services in Mexico and on the American Continent.
Nepal
Saathi is a national NGO in Nepal; established in 1992, Saathi works in the area of violence against women and children. In 1995, it opened the first shelter in Nepal and presently runs three shelters for women and four shelters for children.
Bandana Rana, GNWS Executive Committee Co-Chair, Executive President of Saathi
Netherlands
The Federatie Opvang is the Dutch branche organization for women’s shelters and shelters for the homeless. Throughout the Netherlands 30 organizations of women’s shelters offer safe accommodation and support for women and their children, advice and support centers and ambulant aid for families dealing with domestic violence. The Federation advocates on a national level for a national action plan to prevent (domestic) violence in relations and to take all necessary measures to protect and support victims and their children .
Riekje Kok, Director of women’s shelter in Groningen and chair of the National platform of women’s shelter directors. Member of the board of GNWS and the Policy-committee
Liesbeth van Bemmel, Project manager and policy maker at the Federatie Opvang, Deputy and support for Riekje in the GNWS Board.
Pakistan
Khola Iram is the Principal Adviser for the Gender Responsive Policing Project (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit) in Pakistan.
Rwanda
Rwanda Women's Network is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting strategies that empower Rwandan women. The organisation has been in existence since 1997, taking over from its parent organisation Church World Service (USA). The organisation promotes practices that respond to SGBV recovery, in post conflict settings.
Mary Balikungeri, Executive Director and Founder of Rwanda Women's Network.
Sweden
The Swedish Association of Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Empowerment Centres (SKR) is a national association of women’s shelters (kvinnojour), young women’s empowerment centres (tjejjour), relatives’ associations and other organisations working to prevent and put a stop to men’s violence against women. The association is not affiliated to any political party or religion. SKR has around 90 member organisations.
SKR’s vision is an equal society free from violence. Men’s violence against women is the ultimate expression of structural inequality. If we are to end the violence that is aimed at women purely because they are women, we must work towards greater equality in a number of areas. Notions of what is considered feminine or masculine influence and limit our behaviour and our understanding of ourselves. SKR believes we are not born into our gender roles, and that it is possible to change the way women and men are perceived.
Katarina Björkgren, Member of GNWS Governance-Structure Committee, Co-chair of SKR
Olga Persson, Secretary General of SKR
The Americas
Margarita Guillé Tamayo is the first Executive Coordinator of the Inter American Network of Women's Shelters (RIRE). RIRE was established in 2006 to promote quality services to victims of violence against women and to reduce the rates of femicide suffered by various countries in the continent. Currently there are 17 countries participating actively in the region, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Perú, Puerto Rico, United States and Venezuela.
United States
Day One® is a statewide program of Cornerstone Advocacy Service (Minnesota, U.S.). Cornerstone’s offers a continuum of services that builds sustainable self-reliance and revives the human spirit. Cornerstone educates, advocates, and leads the way to social change. Day One® strengthens, enhances and unifies a network of over 55 shelters, safe housing and community-based programs for the purpose of providing seamless access to safety and resources for domestic violence victims and their families. Day One® is actively involved in local, national and international social justice efforts aimed at ending violence against women and children.
Colleen Schmitt, Day One® Manager, GNWS Board member, Communications-Awareness Committee Member
The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), a social change organization, is dedicated to creating a social, political and economic environment in which violence against women no longer exists. NNEDV provide leadership, advocate for effective public policy, improve institutional and cultural systems, share knowledge internationally, and change societal attitudes about domestic violence. As a membership and advocacy organization of state domestic violence coalitions, allied organizations and supportive individuals, NNEDV works closely with its members to understand the ongoing and emerging needs of domestic violence victims and advocacy programs. NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence. Through cross-sector collaborations and corporate partnerships, NNEDV offers support to victims of domestic violence who are escaping abusive relationships – and empowers survivors to build new lives.
Sue Else is President of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).
Cindy Southworth is Vice President of Development & Innovation of NNEDV.
Kaofeng Lee is a Safety Net Project & Communications Specialist with NNEDV and the Project Manager of the 2nd World Conference of Women’s Shelters.
Cynthia Fraser is a consultant with NNEDV.
Krista Niemczyk is a Public Policy Coordinator with NNEDV.
Vietnam
Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender – Family - Women and Adolescents (CSAGA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicating to the implementation of the rights of women and children who are affected by violence and discrimination. CSAGA was founded on July 1 2001 under the registration No 101 DK/KHCNMT of Hanoi Department of Science, Technology and Environment. CSAGA’s main activities focus on two main subjects, women and children who are vulnerable to gender-based violence. Our main fields of working are Gender and Gender Equality, Domestic Violence Prevention, Corporal and Psychological Punishment against Children Prevention. These issues are developed through activities: Counseling, training, mass communication and implementation of intervention projects.
Nguyen Van Anh, Chairwoman of the CSAGA Board
