Currently, there are many organizations in Viet Nam working in the field of domestic violence prevention. Almost all beneficiaries of those interventions are women who are victims of the violence, or staff who work directly with the victims. However, most of these programmes do not involve men who are the agents of such violence. This issue is now being addressed by CCIHP, in the second phase of their project which seeks to facilitate an integrated response to gender-based within clinical and community settings.

The project aims to improve the awareness and change the behaviuor of men who perpetrate domestic violence. The reasons for this is that men who perpetrate violence against women, often do not appreciate that their behaviour casuses harm and is in breach of the law. Raising their awareness of these issues helps to challenge their behaviours and enables them to recognise that they are rooted in differences of power between genders, i.e. gender inequality.

Communications activities and focus sessions were all designed to actively involve men, these activities included small group sessions where men are given the space to explore their feelings through focused discussions. This helps them to understand the damage they cause to their partners and families and causes them to think about changing their behaviours. Ultimately only the men themselves can take ownership of their actions and change their behaviour but CCIHP’s experience shows that activities that seek the participation of men can facilitate such change. Although there will be many lessons to learn, the model provides much promise in reducing the incidence of domestic violence.