Persefona

This organization is an umbrella center for victims of rape, sexual abuse and violence throughout the entire Kingdom of Norway. These centers offer services to adult men and women, teenagers, and to the family members, friends and partners of victims who express interest in assistance, counseling and information. Some centers also provide their services to children and to domestic violence victims.  

Our main motivation for establishing this international collaboration is to communicate the ideology of self-help, which the centers in the FMSO network base their work on. This approach is not at all developed in the Czech Republic in the area of aid to victims of domestic and sexual violence. What is interesting is that in Norway, where approximately five million inhabitants live, there are 22 centers providing aid to victims of sexual violence, while in the Czech Republic, which has 10 million inhabitants, we can count such places on the fingers of one hand. This is not the only reason we consider Norway an appropriate country for collaboration and for communicating their good practices to us. The aim of this collaboration is to communicate their approaches to sexual violence victims, their experience with them, and their good practices. Part of the partnership included a week-long stay in Norway, which we did in May, and during which we visited the center for aid to victims of sexual violence in Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim.   

Besides the SMISO center, which is designed for victims of sexual abuse and violence, we had the opportunity to visit the Center for Victims of Sexual Assault at Trondheim Hospital, where we were given a tour by a nurse, and we met with the coordinator of the Center against Domestic Violence at Trondheim Municipality, with representatives of the police, and with the Support Group for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence established by the police and the town. Our last stop in Trondheim was a visit to Barnehuse, a special police facility for working with children who are perpetrators and victims of violence.  

The representatives of the Bergen-based organization SMISO welcomed us very warmly into their collective and familiarized us with their methodology for leading self-help groups for children, for running preventive programs for primary school pupils, and with their services. As part of our final, one-day visit to the capital, Oslo, we visited the Center for the Victims of Incest (SMI), the Center for Victims of Rape and Sexual Violence (DIXI), and we met with a representative of the umbrella organization FMSP, Linda Bakke, who coordinated our entire stay in Norway. SMI further presented their work with men who are victims of rape and sexual violence, focused on the specifics of women who commit sexual abuse, and told us about a project in which they publish a magazine where primarily the clients themselves determine its form.

Thanks to this week-long stay we familiarized ourselves with different approaches towards victims of sexual abuse and violence than are practiced in the Czech Republic, and we had the opportunity to take a look at the broader system in which the Norwegian centers cooperate and function. This trip was a big inspiration and a valuable experience for us.

In the fall of this year we will have the honor of welcoming to Brno the representative of the centers for aid to the victims of sexual abuse and violence networked through the FMSO organization. Professionals from all over the Czech Republic will also have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with Norwegian practice within the framework of several conferences and seminars on the issue of working with violent persons. If you are interested in our trip to Norway or learning more about the planned seminars, follow our Facebook profile or the news section of our web page.