According to the 2015 UNDP report, 48.9% of Guinea Bissau’s population lives on less than $1.25 a day. In fact, the country is at 164° place among 169 countries in the Human Development Index (PNUD data). In such a context of extreme poverty, the situation in which women live is even more disadvantaged. Everyday women and girls are living in danger of all kinds of violence.

The project, lasting 3 years (2018/2021), aims to promote and guarantee girls and women’s rights in the country, working on several fronts: through the awareness of population, the promotion of women’s socioeconomic autonomy, the supervision by using reporting operations and then the welcoming and reintegration of victims of gender violence.

Numerous and articulated activities over the three years of the project. Including: training course in hotel and home management, activation of the first employment agency for women, support to four small women-run enterprises. Moreover, development of a study about the girls and women’s status in the communities, national radio campaign about gender violence, realization of travelling theatre performances, selection and training of socio-community agents, training and education of families at risk and improving access to the telephone support line for victims.

Mani Tese, in particular, will focus on:

• Establish 3 initial reception centres for victims of gender violence 

They will be located in the regions of Bafatà, Tombali and Quinarà. They will offer listening, guideline and legal support.

• Strengthen spaces for the reception of victims and establish a special Shelter House  

Girls, victims of violence and under the age of 14, are not short of asylum and reintegration institutions; instead, the problem arise for older girls and girls with children. The project provides a census of religious or lay structures available, their strengthening with equipment and special training sessions, and the creation of a Shelter House. The objective of these spaces will be to assist these victims and their children, to ensure their protection, to encourage their talents and attitudes to promote their reintegration, to provide psychological and legal assistance with experts, to fight against any further actions of the violent. We will also look for new families to include, after a specific training, into the number of welcoming structures available.

• Strengthening public actors’ skills in dealing with victims of gender violence 

A 5-day training meeting for representatives of the Judicial Police and other competent national organisations on this topic that will produce an updated manual every six months and the birth of a coordination between sector operators.

• Implement a National Plan for Prevention and Fight against Domestic and Gender Violence 

It will include prevention, awareness raising, protection and reintegration of victims and training of workers.

• Set up socioeconomic reintegration pathways 

We will activate collaborations with the private sector to ensure the reintegration of victims of gender violence into the working world.

• Organize a concluding seminar 

We will organize a concluding seminar, called “Being a woman”, that will serve in order to reflect, to evaluate what has been done and plan the future.