The goal of the Foundation is: to better the position of the woman on Aruba, to fight violence in the family, especially against women, and render help in such situations.

The Foundation wants to achieve this goal in different ways: by raising awareness, networking for women, promoting new laws and/or changing existing laws; but also by having a shelter for battered women.

One of the goals of our Foundation is operating a Shelter for women who have been victims of battering and/or domestic violence.
In October 1999 the Foundation had the opportunity to buy a building that is perfect for the use as a shelter. In April 2000 transactions were concluded and this property was turned over in hands of our Foundation. This house has been made ready for the use as a shelter for battered women on Aruba and is operating since January 2001.

The shelter

The shelter has been in operation since January 2001. It has five spacious rooms, which are completely furnished; each room has it's own bathroom. The shelter is given on a regular basis to women and their children. Where possible the women are requested to pay a small amount for their stay and care. The shelter is given for a maximum time of 3 months. During their stay the women are given professional help to solve theirs problems and get them back on their feet as soon as possible.

What is domestic violence?

The definition of domestic violence is as follows:
any form of physical violence, or threatening with physical violence, by the male (or former) partner, as a result of which, against the woman's will, her physical integrity is violated, and/or injury or pain is inflicted on the woman, or psychological violence is applied.

However at this point, we must make mention of the fact that nowadays battering of the male by his female partner is not uncommon. On Aruba we are now seeing this phenomena.