David Osrin News Today

"Community members play a key role in addressing violence against women, but often need encouragement, support and protection to do so."Transforming communities into safe and supportive environments for women facing risk of violence has long been a goal for feminist activists and researchers.

Delan Devakumar, Professor of Global Child Health and Co-Director of the Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents at University College London (UCL), UK, has always understood racism and what it is like to be discriminated against. About a year before he was born, his parents’ house in Sri Lanka was burnt down. “It was a targeted attack”, he says. “My father comes from the Tamil minority group.” Later, as a south Asian boy growing up in north Wales, UK, he experienced r...

"This clearly defined model for integrated community-based health intervention in informal settlements merits adaptation and assessment in other contexts, particularly in Asia and Africa." As of 2011, about 41% of Mumbai, Indias households were in informal settlements, where women and children in particular face multiple health issues.

"These findings open up avenues for policymakers to treat communities as less vulnerable and more capable of changing situations and problems that affect them." Interventions that mobilise communities to tackle the social and structural drivers of violence have been found to be effective in some contexts to prevent violence against women (VAW).

"Womens groups practising participatory learning and action led to substantial reductions in neonatal and maternal mortalities in rural, low-resource settings." Maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain high in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

LSHTM Faculty of Public Health and Policy Seminar Series The webinar will discuss the challenges of evaluating programmes that aim to address domestic violence, primarily in urban informal settlements.