News:

Social Innovator Ana Bella works towards the empowerment of abused women by leveraging their strengths and capabilities in order to regain self-confidence. With her organization, the Ana Bella Foundation, she is shifting the focus of support programs that address gender-related violence: From victims to empowered and empowering survivors. With the regained self-confidence, the women begin the separation process from their abuser – an important step towards independence and winning back quality of life.  

Easier recovery thanks to peer-to-peer support 

Ana Bella creates peer-to-peer support networks of women survivors, who by example of their own experience of recovery, convey a positive message. Ana Bella’s model is changing the current approach of available programs and resources to better adapt to address women’s specific needs, thereby lowering the barriers to recovery. 

Domestic violence & Covid-19: A shocking correlation 

The number of women reporting abuse to the Ana Bella Foundation has increased by 4 times during the Coronavirus lockdown. Despite this, research shows that only 20 percent of women suffering from abuse legally report their abuser. With the many unreported cases, Ana Bella wants to convey a message of encouragement to these women to help them break free from violence. She therefor focuses on the benefits of “breaking away” instead of the dangers of remaining in an abusive relationship. By doing so, she is building on the strengths of survivors (rather than only focusing on the negative consequences of domestic violence).  

Lowering barriers to support 

Due to the simplicity of joining an informal peer-to-peer network, Ana Bella is lowering the barrier for battered women to reach the point of reporting their abuser and get support to get the rains of their lives. Reporting an abuser is generally the major gateway to receive official resources and financial support.  

What difference did the collective effort of Changemakers United make?  

Within the Changemakers United project, Ana Bella and her team are working on a public awareness campaign to empower survivors of domestic violence and a replication strategy to reach more beneficiaries. 

This the what they have been working on and have achieved so far: 

• Impact and feedback: An expert from our founding partner Zalando is helping to set up a feedback system to register the satisfaction of women who ask for help to Ana Bella Foundation to leave their abuser and get back on their feet. This helps Ana Bella Foundation register their impact and improve their support to women. 
• External communication – an online campaign to spread the word: A pro bono expert is helping them with the creation of a viral campaign to raise awareness on domestic violence. The launch is expected to happen in fall 2020. This campaign encourages women to share their experiences with abusive relationships with others, learning from each other’s experiences and removing social stigma. It also helps with reaching out to battered women who need help, finding more volunteers for the network and raising funds.  
• Think big and replicate the solution: Through a replication and transfer training with Ashoka, Ana Bella and her team developed a methodology – a network approach – for scaling their solution to new regions. Several experts are helping them in honing their scaling methodology, especially through analysing community data. 

• Legal support for international impact: A team of lawyers is involved in setting up a legal structure for the umbrella organization of Ana Bella’s international network.

“We’re a small team and for us it was amazing to feel such support, especially during these times. The experts gave us space to breathe.” 
(Feedback from Gemma Sunyer from the Ana Bella Foundation) 

To keep an overview of different workstreams, Ana Bella’s team has weekly meetings with their Changemakers United mentors from Ashoka and Zalando. The mentors act as coaches and provide moral support – which in itself is helping the team reach their impact goals. 

Further information: 

• Want to know more about Ana Bella? Visit her profile here or take a look at her website!  
• Read here about the progress that the social innovator Dorica Dan made with her help for patients with rare diseases – thanks to the Changemakers United initiative!