What we do
Shamsaha’s mission statement: Advocating for women’s empowerment and protection throughout the Middle East.
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Our focus
Shamsaha utilizes high-impact, cost-effective, internationally recognized solutions that help women and communities affected by violence or abuse. We use our international expertise as well as our cultural familiarity to shape our humanitarian policies and practices in ways that improve the lives of women and girls worldwide. In all of our work we focus on our vision: EMPOWERING WOMEN TO THRIVE.
Community education and awareness
Health
Shamsaha has trained more than 500 health care workers on how to improve care for women, both in urgent care facilities and in-patient settings. Reducing the immediate effects of trauma that victims of violence experience substantially reduces their chance of developing PTSD.
Awareness
Creating awareness and reducing the stigma associated with taboo topics that are often seen as private matters is the first step to eliminating inequalities and discrimination against women. Shamsaha works to promote equality and harmony so women and men thrive together.
24/7 Crisis care
Empowerment
Promoting equality, harmony and respect, empowers families and entire communities to thrive. Shamsaha plants a seed of hope and empowerment every time it supports a woman on its 24/7, multi-lingual crisis helpline - the first and only of its kind in the region.
Safety
Following international standards of care for both victims and volunteers alike, Shamsaha works to promote both a real and a perceived sense of safety for women in the community. When women feel safe, they have the space to grow, thrive and build dynamic healthy communities.
Women and girls
Women and girls all over the world are affected by gender-based violence and many forms of inequality. Systemic inequalities must be addressed with generational change in mind, therefore Shamsaha works to promote healthy and inspiring programs for women and girls alike.
Case work
Emotional well-being
Post-traumatic stress disorder effects victims of violence at higher rates than returning soldiers of war. The most predictive factor however in determining their outcomes is how women are treated following a traumatic incident. Shamsaha caseworkers devote weekly talk sessions to follow-up with all victims of abuse to ensure they are feeling empowered and supported.
Planning
Working with many partners, from other civil society organizations, to shelters, and corporations, Shamsaha supports women and families in developing positive and healthy plans for their future. Using a victim-centered approach Shamsaha lets the women lead, but acts as a bridge to help them access any services they may need in their path to achieving their goals.
Economic well-being
Working with women and numerous regional partners, Shamsaha supports not only empowerment for victims, but skills development programs as well. Knowing that a key reason women remain in unhealthy relationships is lack of financial stability, promoting financial freedoms and self-sufficiency is one of our most important and strategic ways to empower women.
Where we are going
Regional expansion
Shamsaha has been accepted into a formal partnership with EY (Ernst & Young) as an EY CSR Ripples Client in Bahrain. EY is helping Shamsaha to develop a market-entry and expansion strategy to expand throughout the GCC region over the next 24 months, using the successful Bahraini program as the model and the new mobile phone technology as the vehicle.
The expansion plan will include:
- Regional market analysis
- Funding and sustainability planning
- Market selection and feasibility study
- Risk analysis
For this expansion, Shamsaha, the only existing GBV (Gender based Violence) crisis advocacy response program in the Middle East, is developing a novel GBV response mobile phone application in order to expand its services throughout the Arabian Gulf, making virtual GBV response care available for the first time ever to millions of women in the region. Since its beginning in 2016, Shamsaha has supported thousands of women, but through the use of innovative mobile phone technology, this project will improve upon our existing IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) response programs in Bahrain by exponentially increasing our reach to include women living throughout the region.
This new service will drastically improve accessibility to services for victims of GBV, filling a wide regional gap, for isolated Arab and expatriate women alike. Because until now there remain no other GBV crisis response programs operating here and very few governments or civil society support services for women suffering from various forms of GBV, including IPV and trafficking. Following international best practices as outline by the UNODC Handbook for Victims, this intervention will drastically improve current conditions for women by making available easily-accessible, culturally-tailored, language-specific, trauma-informed, virtual care for victims of GBV throughout the entire Middle East for the first time ever.
Testimonials
We are proud to be the first hospital in the region to have partnered with Shamsaha, in order to provide truly meaningful support for women. We are excited not only about what we have achieved so far in supporting women’s empowerment, but also about all of the incredible possibilities the future holds.
Julia ToveyCEO, American Mission Hospital
Financial Centre Development Company, the owner of Harbour Gate / Bawabati Al Marfaa and Harbour Towers / Abraaj Al Marfaa , strongly supports women’s empowerment. Partnering with Shamsaha has enabled Harbour Gate in particular to be demonstrably more accessible and enabled us to become a more active member of the Bahraini community. We are keen to support and promote equality and development of both women and men alike. We believe that when women thrive, the entire society also thrives. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the ground-breaking work being done by Shamsaha.
Angus CampbelCEO, Financial Centre Development Centre B.S.C.(c)
Who we serve
80% towards programs
16% towards administration
4% towards fundraising- Shamsaha is a registered 501 C 3 not-for-profit corporation