Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2010 2011 2012 2013

Details for Mechanism ID: 6166
Country/Region: Dominican Republic
Year: 2013
Main Partner: Profamilia
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: NGO
Funding Agency: USAID
Total Funding: $131,269

USAID support to PROFAMILIA, the local IPPF affiliate, will contribute to achieve DRPF Goal Area 4, Integrated Attention. They fill a critical gap in the health system by providing access to CD4 tests for patients in 14 of the Northern provinces. PROFAMILIA will design and begin implementing a sustainability plan, including a source for generating revenue. Violence against women has reached epidemic proportions in the Dominican Republic. Although recent statistics are not available, in 2007, more than 11,886 cases of domestic abuse were registered (10,236 against women and children and 1,629 against men). It is unknown how many children have been orphaned because of this. The 2007 DHS module on domestic violence reported that 20% of all women questioned had received physical punishment from their husband or partners since they were fifteen years old, and 10% had in the last twelve months. And 45.1 percent stated that their partners were responsible for the abuse. Also, pregnant women living with HIV have been reluctant to disclose their status to their partners; because they fear economic sanction or that they and their children will be abandoned, abused or killed. The DR enacted Law 24-97 to protect victims of gender-based violence. It classified the different types of violence and sanctions for offenders. The Secretary for Women Affairs and the Office of the Prosecutor Womens Defense Office, have established legal and emotional services for victims. However, the system is weak and most women that have been killed since 1997 had access to these services but were not protected by them. Their killers were admonished or freed with the promised that they would not stalk their spouses any more.

Funding for Care: Adult Care and Support (HBHC): $131,269

In the year 2004, one of our local NGOs, PROFAMILIA received a small grant from USAID/DR to develop a strategic plan and a training module both for the judiciary system, police force and the educational system. Although this activity was successful as a pilot project, the number of victims has continued to rise through the years.

As a result USAID/DR has taken the decision to fund PROFAMILIA to carry-out prevention and care activities in order to reduce the number of women and children that are victims of domestic violence, whether as a result of disclosure or to prevent that they become infected with AIDS or a STI.

Although no investigation have linked domestic violence to women and children occurring in the country to disclosure of the HIV status, USAID/DR feels that a unknown proportion may be caused by this action. It is also important to understand that because of the power relation that exists between men and women, it is not easy for women in union or married to negotiate condom use, even if they are aware that their partners may have other concurrent partners.

Through this activity, PROFAMILIA will provide support to improve counseling services in two principal hospitals (in Santiago and Santo Domingo), strengthen peer counseling in the hospitals through the network of person living with HIV/AIDS in order to link these women to the services available in the community, especially to those in need of referral to the judicial and protection services. Coordinate with organizations that support and train women in income generation activities for abused women. Collaborate with the judicial services to strengthen awareness of the situation of domestic violence and sexual abuse and strengthen available shelters and temporary housing to create a safe haven for abused women and children.