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World Vision Report: Alarm for Albanian women and children exposed to violence

World Vision Report: Alarm for Albanian women and children exposed to violence

Albanian women and children suffer from low levels of empowerment, lack of freedom and a worrying level of exposure to violence, according to the results of a World Vision Albania survey.

The report interviewed over 460 mothers between the ages of 35-50 and children between the ages of 11-17, with a focus on family decision-making, asset ownership and management, time and freedom management, health and nutrition, education, psychosocial well-being, and general well-being.

"The main obstacles to women's empowerment are their inability to redistribute the burden of care, lack of access to employment opportunities, harmful gender norms and stereotypes in the communities where they live, and lack of access to basic legal services.

The results show that only 1% of Albanian women were empowered in all factors of the report, demonstrating significant problems present at the family, society and institutional level.

Only 61% of respondents said they had some impact on household assets, including land and property, while 68% said they had no control over their time and had no care or household chores.

According to 2018 data, only 8% of Albanian women own land, while 41% said they felt personally empowered, with the majority feeling submissive to men in their lives.

Moreover, 14% thought that domestic violence was justified. These norms include "that mothers have to make most of the decisions about how their children grow up, the main responsibility of the father is to provide financially for his children and some types of jobs are not suitable for women".

Slightly more than half said they enjoyed personal freedom of movement, while only 9% said they understood and had access to their civil rights.

Meanwhile, almost 60% of children said they were exposed to violence and abuse in some way, mostly by family and friends. Boys were more likely to be victims or witnesses to it.

A quarter of child respondents said they had heard of sexual violence in their community, while only 26% were aware of the harms and dangers online. 7% of children had possible or potential signs of depression.

Source: Euroactiv

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