Vienna, 10 March 2025 – As the world marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most visionary agenda for advancing women’s rights – the Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) Network is proud to announce the relaunch of its “Find Help” database. This essential resource connects survivors of gender-based violence with almost 2,000 vetted women’s specialist services across 46 European countries. As the only database of its kind in Europe, the relaunch strengthens WAVE’s commitment to ensuring that those in need can access specialised, feminist-led support quickly and safely.
With gender-based violence affecting 1 in 3 women in the EU alone (FRA, EIGE, Eurostat 2024), providing access to women’s specialist support is more urgent than ever. The WAVE “Find Help” database is the only such resource in Europe, offering survivors and those supporting them a vital tool to easily locate life-saving services in their region. In 2024 alone, the database recorded 2,499 visits, a 32% increase compared to 2023, reflecting the growing need for accessible, survivor-centred services. The relaunch of the database enhances its usability, ensuring that survivors, frontline workers, and allies i.e. family/friends can navigate and connect with women’s specialist services more efficiently.
Why Women’s Specialist Services matter
Women’s specialist services provide feminist, independent, and survivor-centred support for women and their children facing gender-based violence. These services, including women’s shelters, rape crisis centres, and helplines, offer not only immediate crisis intervention but also prevention and long-term advocacy for systemic change. They are distinct from mainstream services in their deep understanding of the structural nature of violence against women and girls, ensuring survivors receive confidential, free of charge, trauma-informed, and rights-based support.
Beyond providing essential care, women’s specialist services play a crucial role in empowering survivors, challenging harmful structures, and driving sociopolitical transformation. However, access to these life-saving services remains alarmingly inadequate. Currently, Europe is lacking all types of specialist services. For example, 90% of essential services for survivors of sexual violence—such as rape crisis centres and sexual violence referral centres—are missing in European countries outside the EU, while the shortfall within EU Member States stands at 82% (WAVE Country Report 2023). Chronic underfunding, coupled with increasing hostility toward overall civil society and particularly feminist NGOs, threatens both the survival of these services and the hard-won progress in securing women’s and girls’ rights.
Stephanie Futter-Orel, WAVE Executive Director, highlights the urgency of strengthening women’s specialist services: “The complex challenges we face today, ranging from the global rise in armed conflicts to the organised backlash against women’s rights, reinforce the need for strong specialised services for women and girls. Women’s specialist services are essential in addressing the diverse needs of women and girls and preventing the various forms of violence that they experience.”
By amplifying the work of women’s specialist services, WAVE continues to strengthen the feminist movement and push for long-term solutions to eliminate violence against women and girls. Visit the WAVE “Find Help” database today and share this resource to ensure more survivors can access the support they deserve: https://wave-network.org/find-help/
For media inquiries, please contact:
Beverly Mtui
WAVE Communications Coordinator
Email: beverly.mtui@wave-network.org
Phone: +43 6763822572
View the Press Release “WAVE relaunches Europe’s largest database of Women’s Specialist Services” in PDF format here.
