New domestic violence center flooded with calls

JEDDAH: The undersecretary for social welfare, Abdullah Almeiqil, revealed that the Center for Domestic Violence received 1,890 calls during the first three days of its establishment.

Almeiqil said that about 49 percent of the cases reported to the center were new. "In total, the center received 916 new cases during the three days," he added.
He said that the center received 233 calls of inquiry asking about previous reports, accounting for 12 percent of the total. Meanwhile, consultation calls during this period amounted to 374, accounting for 20 percent of the total incoming reports. In addition, the center received 367 inquiries about the services that it offers, totaling about 19 percent of the calls received.
The Center for Domestic Violence was launched last Sunday by Social Affairs Minister Majed Al-Qassabi and will take calls related to domestic violence and abuse around the clock, all days of the week. The center's operations target women from all age groups, as well as children under 18 years of age, in addition to elders and people with special needs.
The center classifies calls according to their seriousness, with calls involving a high degree of danger and risk to the abused referred immediately to police. The center involves more than 22 teams for social protection operating across the various regions and provinces of the Kingdom.
The Ministry of Social Affairs also has partnerships in this program with several government bodies, including the Ministry of Interior represented by the governorates and police stations, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution, the Human Rights Commission, the Family Safety Protection Program of the National Guard, the National Society for Human Rights in addition to other partners representing the regulations on childhood such as the Ministry of Labor, the General Presidency for the Youth Welfare, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Committee for Childhood and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.
The Ministry of Social Affairs is currently working on a set of regulations and preventive procedures to limit the cases of domestic violence as much as possible, including the executive list for the protection against abuse and child protection.