On 25 November, the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, HelpAge and partners in Moldova took action to break the silence on elder abuse.
Entering the United Nations building, we received an orange scarf, a symbol of the day. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign that starts on 25 November and ends on 10 December – Human Rights Day.
The dates were chosen to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of basic human rights.
A future free from violence
Why the orange scarf? The UN in New York gave a call to Orange YOUR Neighbourhood, encouraging people around the world to wear something orange to show their hope for a future free from violence against women and girls and galvanise communities.
A Life without violence is the motto of the campaign in Moldova. With our partner the Gender Centre, we are organising several key activities.
Eight communities will hold information sessions with psychologists to talk about intergenerational communication between older parents and adult children. In old age, both women and men experience abuse from their grown up children or younger relatives, mainly characterised by economic and psychological abuse.
The sessions aim to prevent family conflicts and reduce violence and abuse towards older people. The communities will receive information about elder abuse and learn how to prevent this ugly phenomenon.
TV and theatre campaigns
On 12 December, a review meeting of the campaign will take place at the national level and a group of older people from HelpAge and the Gender Centre network of NGOs, together with young people will take part in a TV show “Buna Seara” with the famous TV presenter Mircea Surdu. The show will also be organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family.
The burning topics of the day will be presented by a group of women of all ages and then discussed together with the audience in his studio. The studio will then flash the orange colour and anti-violence messages symbolising the need to stop violence against women of all ages.
We are also putting on a play about the issue of violence against older people by the playwright Dumitru Crudu. The performance will take place in the Satiricus theatre in Chisinau on 18 December. It will also be broadcast live on Privesc Eu TV channel.
We’re really pleased that because of our work the 16 Days campaign is also addressing the issue of violence against older women.
Read more about our work to tackle violence against older women.