ROSA Rolling Safespace - more mobile contact points for women on the move

Half of all refugees worldwide are women. In addition to traumatisation due to causes of flight such as war, persecution or natural disasters, women experience additional burdens and dangers due to patriarchal structures. In humanitarian aid, there is hardly any infrastructure that is adapted to people who experience multiple burdens due to their gender (pregnancy, traumatisation through forced marriage, forced prostitution, etc.). Public spaces are often male-dominated and often not a safe place for women. This is why ROSA e.V. has been organising safe spaces for refugee women at various shelters along the EU's external border since 2022 and, since last year, also in Germany.

What is important to us:

Access: Our programme is not tied to one location, but we create safe spaces wherever there is an acute need. In Greece, a converted truck equipped with a medical room, a tea kitchen and storage space for workshop materials forms the heart of the project. This enables us to reach shelters that do not have direct access to urban infrastructure. Also in Germany, our focus is on accommodation that tends to be less well connected to local infrastructure.

Eye level: A safe place can only be created together, which is why our work is primarily geared towards the needs of the women using the Saferspace. Thus, we offer a wide range of activities, from medical workshops to knitting and self-defence. In dialogue with the women, we try to create offers that are tailored to their needs and are flexible in their approach.

Visibility: Our safe spaces may not solve the problem, but we want to show how easy it can be to provide effective, gender-sensitive support. Political action needs to be translated into concrete practice. That is why it is important to us to make women who have experienced flight visible. In order to offer them a platform and to inform the public about the critical conditions, the local groups of ROSA organise a wide variety of actions, such as demonstrations, rallies, information stands or film evenings in Germany.

In the last year, we could to provide this safe spaces for more than 5,000 women. The need will continue to increase with the restrictions on asylum rights and reforms such as CEAS. That's why we need you to continue to offer women on the run a small refuge next year and to make a clear statement in the EU landscape: We are in solidarity! For more safe spaces everywhere!
 
You can find more information on our website https://www.rolling-safespace.org