Communities Care: Transforming lives and preventing violence

Communities Care is a community-based model for preventing and responding to sexual violence against girls and women in conflict-affected settings. The programme is premised on the idea that while armed conflict causes horrendous suffering for those affected, the disruption it causes may also present an opportunity for positive change in social norms that can contribute to gender equality and decrease gender-based violence (GBV) and discrimination. Communities Care emphasizes that entire communities – girls, women, boys and men alike – benefit from healthier, safer and more peaceful environments in which all members enjoy their right to live free from violence. Communities Care is among a new generation of prevention programmes that are seeking to address girls’ and women’s disadvantaged economic and social status; the structural and societal conditions that sustain inequality between men and women; and social norms that enable sexual violence and other forms of GBV.