The issue of violence against migrant women have not yet been directly addressed in the Czech Republic. Although the country is considered as relatively safe and tolerant to migrants, on the local level migrants often face prejudice and xenophobia and even violence. Many of migrant women have experienced violence and it was therefore important to draw attention to this topic.

The main goal of the project was to support migrant women to become their own advocates and to help them act as community leaders. This proved to be the most sustainable method in addressing the needs of migrant women who are survivors of abuse or those threatened by violence. 

The secondary goal was to establish effective NGOs network capable to provide migrant women vulnerable to domestic violence with accessible and effective support.

The project helped to support the confidence of women migrants. Considering the success of the project it can be assumed that more women from the target group will join future workshops and the topic will be spread among further groups of women. 

Opening Doors also helped to raise awareness of the public about the violence against women migrants, and thus bring the protection of human rights and prevention of violence among the current topics of public discourse. 

OPU cooperated with the coalition against domestic violence Koordona (CZ). 

In the 1st phase OPU contacted their clients – migrant women from different cultural and language background who participated at regular “peer leader” trainings held by Koordona lecturers at the OPU premises. In the 2nd phase the women participated in trainings in the field of domestic violence lead by experts from OPU and Koordona. Lecturers were chosen from people with proven experience working with women vulnerable to domestic and other violence. 

In the 3rd phase the trained women organized their own workshops with women within their communities based on ethnic, language and cultural factors. The workshops offered an arena for discussions and experiences exchanges. The peer leaders had possibility to reproduce knowledge gained by previous trainings and this knowledge was enriched by experiences of the workshop participants. 

Additionally, six meetings with experts working with migrants in the area of domestic violence were organized in 5 regions of the Czech Republic.

Altogether 190 participants participated in the workshops organized within the project in the Czech Republic. This number includes “peer leaders”, participants of their workshops, representatives of local NGOs.  

Many ideas for possible future activities were developed during the workshops. For example, in 2011 women from Mongolian group established a women club Khumuun, which serves as a meeting place for Mongolian women, education point and library with Mongolian literature. 

An information brochure was created which serves as manual for migrant women who decide to organize their own workshops, discussions or trainings in the field of domestic violence.

Women participating in the project were very satisfied with the lectures. Almost 100 % of participants saw the workshops as beneficial and enriching. Expert public participants often talked about further mutual cooperation. 

Seminars helped to point out some structural problems: 

• the language barriers which makes the contact with authorities and other institutions very hard if not impossible, 
• lack of interpreting services for all actors providing protection to endangered women,
• lack of emergency housing for migrant women and women with children in need.  

The project was implemented within the Daphne III Programme by OMEGA - Transcultural Centre in cooperation with five partner organizations in the EU, including the Czech Republic. The project was financially support by the European Commission with the amount of € 56 566. The co-financing of was 20 %.