The Safe Haven Project
Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence and Ending Violence Against Children and Youth
A mural at the girl's shelter reads (translated): "Life is not about waiting until the storm passes ... but learning to dance in the rain.”
Partners:
PIES de Occidente; Safe Shelter for Girls and Adolescents, Victims of Sexual Violence in Quetzaltenango.
Location:
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
Causes:
Community Health; Violence against women & femicide.
Start Date:
November, 2021 to February, 2024.
Background
On March 8, 2017, the world watched in horror as a Guatemalan shelter for 14-17-year-old survivors of violence burned to the ground. Forty-one at-risk youths were killed in the inferno – 15 survived, most with severe burns and emotional trauma.
This tragedy was the world’s first look into the alarming state of Guatemala’s government-run shelters. A subsequent investigation revealed the devastating events that led up to the deadly fire. Findings revealed a lengthy history of abuse inside the shelter, including allegations of cruel and unusual punishment committed by staff, and physical and sexual abuse at the hands of two rogue staff that allegedly ran an underground sex trafficking ring within the shelter. The fire occurred after shelter residents began protesting the shelter’s inhumane living conditions.
Further investigation revealed the facility chronically ran at overcapacity with an insufficient budget provided by the government to establish decent living conditions. It was also shown that shelter staff were systemically underprepared to serve such a vulnerable population.
Young people end up in Guatemalan facilities like this through no fault of their own. Government-run shelters take in survivors of sexual assault, human trafficking, and parental abandonment. Youth and adolescents are placed in these shelters by the state to protect them; their homes have been deemed unsafe or non-existent through trials and judge orders.
Illustration of a young Guatemalan girl living in fear and violence.
This is the situation in Guatemala, a country that records the violent death of two women every day, and a high and increasing number of pregnancies amongst 10- to 19-year-olds, the majority of which result from sexual violence. Young girls and teens often arrive to these shelters pregnant, traumatized, and with STIs — including but not limited to HIV and AIDS. Since the tragic fire, the surviving shelter residents have been transferred to a new facility, the Safe Shelter for victims of sexual violence, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
The event described above was not an isolated incident; it is part of larger, systemic crisis of care in Guatemala. Our mission going forward is to cultivate a culture where the community can recognize the specific needs of these young girls because they deserve better.
In response to the dire needs of this community, Horizons of Friendship in partnership with Guatemalan executing agency PIES de Occidente (PIES) are launching the “Safe Haven Project: Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence and Ending Violence Against Children and Youth”, with the cooperation of various agencies of the Government of Guatemala.
The project’s mission is to improve the health system and quality of care that youth receive at the shelter — and within their communities. Horizons and PIES are committed to providing individualized, trauma-informed care that is rooted in warmth, patience, and cultural safety. The Safe Haven project is focused on the Shelter for victims of sexual violence and sex trafficking located in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, which has a capacity for 80 girls, but normally houses between 100-120.
The courtyard at the Shelter for Victims of Sexual Violence, ages 9-17, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Image from 2017.
While the Safe Haven project is committed to improving the conditions at the aforementioned shelter, the scope of the mission goes far beyond those four walls.
Our partner PIES is committed to implementing comprehensive programming on a community level, including working with local health professionals to address sexual safety (including STI prevention and care), and to advocate on a broader, social level for the needs and rights of at-risk youths and the eradication of violence (i.e., with decisionmakers from the health, education, and justice sectors). PIES will also be executing an educational campaign in Quetzaltenango, informing residents about paths to reporting violence and sexual education for women and girls.
Illustration of PIES de Occidente staff providing training and support to shelter staff.
Project Details
The Safe Haven Project will respond to the urgent needs of these at-risk youths by aiming to strengthen the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and adolescents, reduce rates of gender violence, and support survivors with personalized, trauma-informed, and culturally pertinent care and accompaniment.
This ambitious multi-year project will benefit 1,770 people directly and 37,000 indirectly. It will do so by following the ‘Strategy for the Reduction of Violation of Human, Sexual, and Reproductive Rights of Girls and Adolescent Survivors of Violence’ which proposes specific actions that respond to the needs of the shelter and provide comprehensive care and protection to survivors of violence. It provides a strategy and plan of action that adequately equips the facility, provides training, supports both physical and mental wellbeing, focuses on the reintegration of at-risk youth to school and back into society, and trains key decision-makers, medical personnel and students, and Ministry of Health staff. It also includes an outreach program targeted to improving knowledge in the general population about existing laws related to violence and sexual violence, including referral and reporting pathways.
Direct beneficiaries of this project include:
300 girls and adolescent survivors of violence living in the shelter in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala,
40 shelter staff,
300 medical students from the Universidad de Occidente in Quetzaltenango,
300 nursing students from the National School of Nursing,
150 decision-makers from the health, education, and justice sectors,
30 OBGYNs from the local hospital (i.e., to build capacity to improve childbirth care for pregnant adolescents and survivors),
250 staff from the Ministry of Health (i.e., to strengthen the application of reporting protocols for gender and sexual violence cases),
100 families of the survivors, i.e., to protect and safely reintegrate survivors back into the community,
Indirect beneficiaries include 25,000 girls and adolescents from the general population, 10,000 parents, 1,000 pregnant teenagers, and 1,000 additional staff of the Ministry of Health who will be reached through community wide and targeted educational campaigns.
This project will be implemented by The Association for Health Promotion, Research, and Education (PIES), and with the cooperation of the Government of Guatemala. PIES has extensive awareness of the problems of women in the Guatemalan, regional, and local context, has implemented many initiatives aimed at preventing and reducing gender violence, is equipped with expertise in programming for children, adolescents, and youth, Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), law, and gender and cultural relevance, and has a professional staff with broad expertise in and commitment to addressing and preventing violence against girls and adolescents.
The mural in the courtyard at the shelter in Quetzaltenango.
A key area of focus for this project is to support the healing and rights of survivors that are housed at the Department of Protection of Girls and Adolescents in Quetzaltenango. The Department is one of the few government shelters focused on supporting girls and adolescents that are survivors of gender-based violence, most of whom have experienced sexual violence. Some of these girls and adolescents are Indigenous, but this shelter often houses survivors of human trafficking, including many vulnerable refugees and migrants from neighboring countries. This project seeks to work with decision-makers and staff at the shelter to implement the ‘Strategy for the Reduction of Violation of Human, Sexual, and Reproductive Rights of Girls and Adolescent Survivors of Violence’ (noted above) that provides comprehensive protection of these minors while promoting the improvement of their quality of life.
The project will be completed in three phases, each 12 months in duration, e.g., Phase 1—November 2021 to October 2022, Phase 2—November 2022 to October 2023, and Phase 3—November 2023 to October 2024.
In the Phase 1 of the project, the focus will be on equipping the shelter, training the staff, and designing and beginning to provide workshops to the survivors, so that these girls and adolescents have increased knowledge and can exercise their fundamental rights. Workshop topics will include a wide array of issues, e.g., sexual and reproductive rights and health, self-esteem exercises and support, routes of reporting violence, and mental health and healing processes.
In Phase 2, all equipment purchases will be completed, workshops will continue to be delivered, and the public awareness campaign will be deployed.
In Phase 3, all project activities, as well as project evaluation surveys and success stories, will be completed.
Pending safety protocols at the shelter and protocols to protect the rights of individual survivors, families of survivors will be informed and also trained using participatory methodology to support the human, sexual, and reproductive rights of survivors. They will also be provided with tools to support the healing and well-being of the girls and adolescents at the shelter.
COVID-19 Protocols
PIES will take extra COVID-19 safety precautions to implement programming in a way that protects survivors, their families, staff, and others. The three phases of the project have been designed for all training, therapy, and support sessions.
In Phase 1 or the project, PIES will complete all programming in an online, virtual setting, and all drop-offs of equipment and other items to the shelter will be done using strict quarantining methods.
In Phase 2, PIES hopes to shift to a hybrid system of virtual and in-person events, but this will only be possible if the mass vaccination program in the country progresses as expected.
In Phase 3, PIES hopes that the bulk of the pandemic will be under control, with most of the population vaccinated. If so, this would allow for a full in-person program to be implemented. If not, the hybrid system will be continued, tailored to the local circumstances.
Looking toward a brighter future
Given the increasing number of cases of gender-based violence in the area, it’s understood that total eradication during the 3-year project timeline isn’t feasible. With that knowledge, the team is focused on implementing tools and awareness that can be self-sustained within these communities after the project wraps.
Throughout all phases of the project, the team will focus on designing and implementing outreach activities with input from community members in Quetzaltenango. These activities will include radio and other media campaigns, as well as in-person and virtual events (if COVID-19 regulations allow).
Throughout this project, the focus will be placed on the coherent and logical implementation of the strategy noted above, using a gender and human rights approach and considering the cultural relevance to the survivors.
All actions taken throughout the project will be detailed and recorded, including those taken to achieve objectives and results, guide process indicators, and laying the foundation needed to determine the impacts of this project in the long term.
The Safe Haven Project aims to implement strategies and tools that can be implemented to support survivors in Quetzaltenango now and into the future. The goal is for the methods used to be accessible, shareable and replicated in other shelters and provinces of Guatemala.