With the support of visiting U.S. experts, Mongolian domestic violence shelter staff, government officials, and NGO leaders participated in consultations and workshops May 11-June 1, 2016, to develop and deploy a new, needs-based training curriculum for shelter staff on effective strategies to combat gender-based violence.
The visiting experts launched their trip to Mongolia by conducting site visits to domestic violence shelters in Ulaanbaatar and outlying provinces, in addition to meeting with government officials and members of the working group on the recently adopted revised law on combatting domestic violence. The experts then led the development of a new training curriculum for shelter staff. As part of a subsequent three-day training, the experts utilized this curriculum to enhance understanding of the best practices of shelter service provision for victims and survivors of gender-based violence. Additionally, the experts led sessions on fundraising and grant writing, with a focus on how to use program outcomes to strengthen grant proposals. The visiting experts were Katie TePas, Senior Policy Advisor and Program Director at the State of Alaska Office of the Governor, and Michelle DeVitt, Executive Director of the Bethel Community Services Foundation.
This expert visit was the second phase of the “Combatting Gender-Based Violence in Mongolia” project, which aims to increase the capacity of the Mongolian government and NGO partners working with victims of domestic violence through exposure to domestic violence shelter management techniques and domestic violence response and prevention strategies.
The project is sponsored by the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. Project implementation is led by the National Center Against Violence (NCAV), a Mongolian NGO dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence against women and children.
