Vrouwenraad (Women's Council): The Lockdown does not protect against domestic violence

For many of us, home is a safe haven during the coronavirus lockdown. In these unprecedented and strange times, we can fortunately also stay in touch with family, colleagues, friends and acquaintances online. For many women and children, however, their own homes are not safe.
During this coronavirus crisis, all support services have reported an increase in domestic violence. Prophets and the Dutch-speaking section of Belgium’s Women’s Council would therefore like to raise awareness of the continued availability of these support services and of the 1712 helpline, which answers any questions about violence, child abuse and other types of abuse.

In recent weeks the 1712 helpline received 70% more calls than in the first week of the Belgian coronavirus containment measures. The calls involved almost twice as many victims of violence than before.

These lockdown measures must not deter any victims from seeking help. Domestic violence is always unacceptable, regardless of the circumstances.

Tackling this problem is absolutely essential, so that got Prophets thinking and it created a moving video to show the situation in some households. Unfortunately, the stories are not always uplifting...

The Women's Council’s video aims to persuade victims and witnesses to contact the 1712 helpline.