Have you heard about the important contribution of the FCVR Foundation to our community?
The former Women in Difficulty Foundation (Fundacion pa Hende Muhe den Dificultad) has transformed itself, changed its brand, and expanded its scope of activities. In the spirit of evolving over time, it changed its name in 2021 to the Foundation Against Relational Violence (Fundacion Contra Violencia Relacional) or FCVR.
The foundation receives a small grant from the government based on its performance and the number of people it supports, the amount of activities organized, but also relies on fundraising within the community.
True to its business philosophy, the Salamander Group raises funds throughout the year and donates to a select group of local charitable organizations. The company manages four prestigious gift, souvenir, fashion, and accessory stores in Palm Beach and Alhambra. It has committed itself to donating a percentage of sales in its stores to support charitable organizations under the Tikkun Olam program, Repair of the World program, introduced for the first time in 2007.
In recognition of the important work carried out by FCVR, the foundation has annually received a donation from Salamander Group since the beginning of the program.
Since its founding in 1995, its headquarters were located in a small building that offered temporary shelter in four rooms to women and children in crisis situations. The foundation also proposed to improve the general situation of women on the island, determined to combat violence within families.
This modest initiative has grown over the years, and today the foundation has a five-point strategic plan, offering residential support in a new building with enough space for 16 families. It also provides non-residential support to individuals seeking counseling and advice. It operates an Experience and Resource Center to train and educate interested parties, conduct advocacy and awareness campaigns, and provide assistance to survivors.
Acting Director Giovanni Bermudez and psychologist Cinthia Quant confessed to having a lot of work and a chronic staff shortage at the foundation. Nevertheless, they are proud of their achievements and reported that they are making the most of the resources until they became one with two natures. They are located at the same address but have a better address financed by the Netherlands.
Cinthia, who graduated in 2018, worked with survivors of gender-based violence as coordinator of response and prevention of gender-based violence at HIAS for four years. Then he went back to school to get his master’s degree and joined the FCVR team as program manager three months ago.
Acting director Giovanni Bermúdez has been with the foundation for a long time. Recently, he finished adjusting and simplifying the extensive strategic plan and is preparing the foundation to receive a permanent director.
He sees the role of the foundation through a holistic lens, determined to advance on the five points at the same time, providing shelter where survivor families can thrive, while educating them to change their behavior and take control of their lives, both in the case of residents and passengers.
He is proud of the courses given to local police and civic organizations that explore the cause of relational violence in its different mental, emotional, and psychological aspects. He is busy organizing fundraising activities and wants the name of the FCVR and its important mission to receive more immediate recognition.
Finally, the long-term relationship with survivors, the collection of data, is important to apply legal measures that protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable.
Both Cinthia and Giovanni talk about the necessary cultural changes, in which norms and behaviors do not support relational violence in our community, in which any form of relational violence, physical, emotional or psychological abuse, is considered a serious problem that affects us all.
