Photo credit: KK

During the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign, the Zonta Club of Feldbach, Austria, is educating its community about its “Zonta Harbour” program. On the first day of the campaign, the club passed out information and collected donations at its city’s yearly Christmas market.

Between 2014 – 2016, the club has collected and invested approximately 25.000 Euro in the program, which has provided safe hotel accommodations and a 60-square-meter flat to about 300 overnight stays to women and children.

In Zonta Harbour’s first year, the club paid for hotel accommodations for 254 overnight stays. In December 2015, the municipality of Feldbach offered the club a flat for the next 10 years, paying rent and running costs. The club furnished the space and is paying for heating and electricity.

The women are allowed to live in the space for a maximum of three months, while receiving advice from experts at Innova, a help and counseling center that partners with the Zonta Club of Feldbach.

The club hosted seven women for a total of 268 overnight stays last year, in addition to hotel accommodations for two women.

This year, the space has been in constant use, and the club is continuing to pay for hotel stays.