Cards help break violence barrier

Women’s Help Cards—an initiative against domestic violence by the Northern Family Violence Reference Group—have been translated into eight community languages.

Announcing the availability of the information cards, Community Services Minister Christine Campbell said the translation would give a wider reach to the important campaign against violence in the home.

‘It is extremely difficult for many women to seek help when they are confronted with domestic violence and the shortage of multilingual information on support services has been a major barrier.

‘This simple but very effective initiative removes the initial language barrier to encourage women from a range of linguistic backgrounds to seek help.

‘Family violence is not specific to a particular ethnic group, so it is important that we make the information about help services available as widely as possible.’

The cards have been translated into Greek, Italian, Turkish, Macedonian, Chinese (Mandarin), Vietnamese, Arabic and Somali.

An additional 20,000 English cards have also been produced.

Ms Campbell said the cards would be distributed broadly through community groups, police, and other agencies in the northern region.

The Government has allocated $1.2 million a year to family violence projects through the Family Violence Prevention and Support Program.

It is also working on a new framework to guide the direction of future family violence services.

‘In the past the emphasis has been on emergency and crisis support for women and children.

‘We now want to focus on prevention and early intervention in the hope of reducing the incidence of violence in the family and sparing women and children that trauma.

‘These cards provide the information that women need to get help sooner rather than later and that will help prevent and reduce family violence.’