On September 15.2016 we received an unexpected guest. The Justice Minister of Romania and
the Ambassador of Romania to |Israel with a large delegation from the Ministry, visited our Shelter.
The Mayor of Herzliya, and representatives of the Ministry of Welfare in Israel were also present
The children’s recreation room was packed with honorable guests and L.O. staff.
The following address was given by Founder & Chair:
Dear Minister of Justice and Romania’s Ambassador to Israel,
We are delighted to host you here with our esteemed guests, who will introduce themselves shortly.
Our Organization founded in 1977 has established and operates 3 shelters for battered women and their children out of the existing 14 shelters in Israel. We established a 24 hour hotline for women in distress operated by our trained volunteers and operate a website on D.V., keeping statistical records of women murdered by spouses and relatives since 1992. We were the first group in Israel to address the issue of women trafficked for prostitution, and over 40 of these women resided in our shelters. We brought the issue to the Knesset, involved the Embassies of the women who assisted them in all possible manner till they were repatriated.
Many thousands of women and children have benefited from our and other shelters in Israel. By bringing this issue to the media, showing the pain and injustice inflicted on women and their children.
We are a feminist group, believing that human rights are women’s rights. We maintain that no woman should be a victim to any person in her own home: spouse, brother, father, mother in law, son…If a man’s home is his castle it must be a woman’s castle too, not her dungeon.
We are Israel’s foremost group to unify women’s organizations to join forces with us in the campaign to eliminate domestic violence. Attended hundreds of Knesset meetings and brought forward the issue of violence at home. We have brought about attitudinal changes in the police force, resulting in the setting up of special domestic violence units in this body. We have addressed the problem to the Ministry of Health thus bringing about a radical change, especially in mother and child care clinics throughout Israel. The issue of D.V. was introduced to Social Services in Israel because of our relentless efforts.
We have trained many of the existing newer shelters to empathize with victims and follow our model of work with care and compassion with the women and children. We have attended dozens of international conferences, and shared our experience with many countries.
We lecture to women’s groups. Students, police, medical professionals, judges, school children, soldiers, women’s associations. We have invited dozens of Israeli Ministers and members of Knesset to see what we have accomplished and mainly to hear the women tell their stories, see how children learn to share their new residence and friends of different cultures and religions, get support and care from loving staff.We have been able to accomplish this with the support and assistance of the Ministry of Welfare, and our numerous donors. Caring staff and many dozens of volunteers.
Ruth Rasnic, Founder & Chair
No to Violence Against Women 15.09.2016, Herzliya, Israel
