About Us

The Counseling Against Family Violence is a non-governmental organization, established on 08/07/1996 in Belgrade, with aim to help women and children, who are victims of domestic violence.
For 19.5 years the Council has helped and supported a huge number of women and children to get out of violent situations and overcome the their personal and family crisis.
The Counseling Against Family Violence has realized over 15,000 calls through phone counseling in a five years period, from 2009-2014. During 2015, 3530 calls were completed through the work of our organization.

The number of calls to our organization has been increasing through the years, which means that the violence gets reported more often, that people write and speak about it more, and that domestic violence is regulated by laws. All these things encourage women to speak out, hoping that someone would help them.

The first level of help, which was provided from the start in our organization, is counseling with women who have a problem, either over the phone or directly with qualified consultants (social workers, psychologists…) The Counseling offers free legal help to the victims of domestic violence in its office. Additionally, during 2013 a network of lawyers was formed within our organization in order to provide free legal aid to the victims who turn to the Counseling, and who are not residents of Belgrade and have no opportunity to come to the our office.

The second level of help consists out of accommodating the victims of domestic violence into the Safe house, where they are safe on a secret address, under the conditions that guarantee their safety, recovery, support and professional help. Safe houses save the lives of women and children who run away from violence in the family, but during their stay in the House we also work actively on their empowerment, provide them with professional help and support, connect them with institutions, but we also connect them with each other through group therapy, so the women can be able to continue a life without violence once they left the Safe house.

The first Safe house within the Counseling was opened 01/11/2000. Today the Counseling has three Safe houses for victims of domestic violence. In the period between 2009-2014 we have accommodated 644 women with 719 children victims of domestic violence in our Safe house in Belgrade. During 2015 the Safe house accommodated 247 women and children.

Numerous examples of women who succeeded to get out of the violence in the family and build up a different life without violence for their children witness about the work of our organization.