Forgotten Subjects of Violence Against Women: Children in Women's Shelters

Violence against women and children, as one of the forms of violence, is a very important problem in Turkey as it is seen in many part of the world. Children, who have to witness the violence against women as the subject of violence and who are sometimes exposed to various forms of violence, and their mothers take shelter in women's shelters as an important instrument to intervene in violence against women. This study aims to reveal the types of services and support programs (psychological, economical, health and education services, etc) provided for children staying in women's shelters subjected to local administrations in Ankara and the qualifications of these provided services. In this scope, the in-depth interviews were made with 43 women staying in four women's shelters subjected to different local administrations in Ankara by using semi-structured questionnaire forms. Also, the assessments of staff of these women's shelters about the services given for children in women's shelters were included in this study. The most important outcomes of this research are that the qualification of many services and support such as psychological, economical, health and education services for children in the women's shelter in which the research was conducted is not sufficient, the women are prioritized and the children are the forgotten subjects in the women's shelter. These insufficient support and services prevent children staying in this women's shelter from showing their own potential In this study, it is considered that this barrier and risk condition is the 'structural violence' called by Galtung and the violence against children, who are the forgotten subjects in women's shelter, may be considered in this frame.