It is estimated that every year thousands of rapes occur in Slovakia, but victims report only dozens of cases to the police. Often, according to experts, the victims do not dare to report due to fear of reactions from people around them. As a result, most of them often have to live with their trauma alone, burdened by self-blame, which usually leads to psychological problems. For this reason, the Nemlčme! project and portal want to offer a helping hand to victims. It is backed by a young woman who experienced sexual violence herself and spoke publicly about this issue.
The idea of creating a portal for all victims of sexual violence, not only women, had been in project initiator Dália Gregorová's mind for years; today it finally came into the world. She decided to implement it only after she publicly talked about her own experience and wrote a blog. That sparked an unexpected response, opened up a discussion, and sparked interest. “I did not expect this. What surprised me most and pleased me at the same time was that within a few days other victims of sexual violence came forward and were willing to talk about it. Suddenly I felt huge relief. But this feeling soon turned into a sense of responsibility, because from personal experience I know how difficult it is to talk about this with anyone, not to mention publicly. Moved by the spontaneous positive reaction, I decided to try to help others who need it too,” said a woman who is now expecting a baby.
From short online discussions with friends and acquaintances, through a large number of supportive emails from people, there was a fairly quick path to setting up a page on Facebook and initiating the project on the philanthropic portal ĽudiaĽuďom.sk. It is currently seeking public support, which can help with its implementation. “The portal and project ĽudiaĽuďom.sk are built on the idea of people's willingness to help selflessly. When we learned about the initiative to support victims of sexual violence, which was created exactly in the spirit of this idea, we were glad that we could provide one of the first shelters in the Slovak virtual space,” explained Roland Kyška, the executive director of the portal.
Since its launch, 15 volunteers have signed up for the initiative and are working to fulfill its vision. In addition to them, other individuals and organizations close to such efforts also supported the idea. “Violence takes on different forms, and sexual violence is one of the most injurious (if it can be ranked at all). That's why we are glad that a group of people with determination was found to name this dark dimension of our private lives, explain it, and offer a hand through empathetic interpersonal help as well as professional help. We are in close cooperation with project initiator D. Gregorová and are ready to advise and help in the first steps and direction of the initiative, which will hopefully gradually turn into a reliable and respected organization,” said the director of the Alliance of Women, Mgr. Katarína Farkašová.
The portal for victims of sexual violence aims to cover several aspects of the issue. Its goal is to be not only a first-contact and support place for victims, witnesses, and relatives; it also wants to provide a gateway to professional help and offer shelter to a community platform aimed at information exchange. It is also meant to spread awareness and create space for providing practical help to rape survivors.
“A substantial part of my career is devoted to issues of differences in the status and treatment of women. One of the most glaring, and unfortunately still fairly taboo and overlooked problems in today's Slovak society, which is connected to a broad societal paradigm of a different perception of the women's world, is violence against women and, within it, primarily sexual violence. I am glad that a small action team was formed quickly and that the website and the Facebook page received such a positive response to its first steps. I hope we will soon see the first version of the portal and that further steps, activities, and discussions will follow, leading to an unequivocal rejection of such conduct,” summarized the well-known women's rights activist Oľga Pietruchová.