The idea of being ‘trapped’ at home during the COVID-19 lockdown takes on a far more serious connotation when the issue of domestic and gender-based violence is factored in. As governments across the globe encourage their citizens to stay at home for the duration of the pandemic (however long that may be), women and children who share a dwelling with a violent abuser are truly trapped. In light of this dangerous predicament, actor Charlize Theron has rallied some of her most influential female friends to join her in a campaign aimed at ameliorating the problem.Theron has launched
Together for Her in a partnership with CARE, an international aid organization, in an effort to support vulnerable women as the lockdown continues. The actor is joined by fellow celebs Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner, Viola Davis, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Salma Hayek, Awkwafina, Octavia Spencer, and Kristen Stewart to name just a few. The project has already promised to provide $1 million in funding which will be delivered to local, on-the-ground organizations “providing safe accommodation/shelter, case management, psycho-social support and counseling, helplines, crisis intervention, legal services, community-based prevention and advocacy work to address intimate partner violence, and additional resources for women and children experiencing domestic violence.”[video_embed id='1935932']RELATED: Self-isolation could lead to rise in domestic abuse, experts warn[/video_embed]Without intervention, the United Nations Population Fund
predicts that six months of lockdowns could mean an additional 31 million reported cases of gender-based violence against women and children globally.“I am a child survivor of domestic violence,” said Viola Davis in a press release for the fundraising project. “It is the last of the acceptable abuses. It thrives on silence and metastasizes into lifelong trauma that can’t be quantified. The abused have been physically, emotionally and financially incapacitated. As a result. They stay.... Providing funds to give them the means to get out and the emotional support to know they are worthy is everything,” she explained. “They are worthy of better, of real love. ”
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