During February- July 2008, Rescue Humanitarian Foundation unfolded a program aimed to inform the inmate women of the domestic violence in the penitentiary from Gherla.
The program was funded by Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy in Bucharest, through the bilateral cooperation program MATRA-KAP and accomplished in cooperation with the penitentiary from Gherla, with Artemis Center – a counseling center against the sexual abuse and domestic violence, also with Inspectoratul Judetean de Politie Cluj-Napoca, Compartimentul de Analiza si Prevenire a Criminalitatii.

The target group was formed of 30 inmate women. The objectives of the program were:

• to inform the women inmate women of the domestic violence
• to create a plan for safety after release
• made the women aware of the available resources in the society
• carry out other programs for the victims of the domestic violence

11 meetings took place- 9 with the inmate women, plus 2 meetings with the specialists involved in the work of social reintegration. In those nine meetings, we informed the women of the characteristics of domestic violence phenomenon (types , theories,  power and control will,etc), of the effects of domestic violence on women  and children, of myths and reality in domestic violence. The collaborators from Artemis presented, at two meetings, their activity and the resources that women could access in case of domestic violence. Also, together we created a safety plan for women before, during and after the violence episode. The Police Department  presented the legal frame of the domestic violence.

At the end of these 9 meetings,  the objectives had been reached. The women received an informative  guidance book,  in which they could find all the aspects discussed at the meetings.
After these meetings, we organized two dissemination meetings regarding the results of this program, and other specialists from penitentiary and  members of NGOs  participated. They tried to identify problems and give solutions to different aspects of the domestic violence. A better collaboration has been established between the penitentiary from Gherla and NGOs, collaboration that would assure a continuance  of   the social reintegration of the inmate women. As a result of these discussions, we developed a new project that has been forwarded  for approval. The objective of that  new project was to assure a better integration of inmate women on the labor market and it would assure a continuance to the former project.