Talking about Domestic Violence: A Handbook for Village Facilitators

This handbook contains guidelines for village facilitators on how to undertake community conversations on 10 different aspects of domestic violence in Cambodia. The community conversations methodology is outlined, and session are detailed with facts about domestic violence, objectives, materials, methods, and specific steps for the session facilitators. It is produced by the Access to Justice Project, implemented jointly with the Cambodian Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and VBNK, a Cambodian capacity building institute for facilitators of development.

Between 2008 and 2010, village facilitators in 89 villages conducted community conversations on domestic violence in their villages in various provinces. As stated in the preface: "Impact surveys show that the methodology is successful in the sense that the Community Conversations have increased awareness and understanding of the issue, have been conducive to creating an environment where the taboo of domestic violence is broken and discussed more openly, and the people in villages where the discussions took place even have the perception that the prevalence of domestic violence decreased."

Sessions include:

• Session 1: Definition and types of domestic violence
  
• Session 2: Factors that contribute to domestic violence
  
• Session 3: The impact of domestic violence
  
• Session 4: Beliefs and facts about domestic violence
  
• Session 5: Perpetrators of domestic violence
  
• Session 6: The roles and duties of local authorities in cases of domestic violence
  
• Session 7: Domestic violence offences and related laws
  
• Session 8: Civil registration and its advantages
  
• Session 9: Divorce
  
• Session 10: Resources available in the community