COVID-19 Taskforce on Domestic Violence

Ashri Anurudran graduated from Harvard College with an Economics degree and focus in Global Health. Having grown up in London, Kuala Lumpur and Houston, Ashri has witnessed the prevalence of sexual violence within vastly different societies. She hopes to introduce preventative norms early enough to create a generation of powerful, confident and informed citizens with the tools to fight sexual violence. In the past, Ashri has founded school-based interventions for 12-14-year-olds that aim to change norms surrounding sexual violence in India and Kenya. The programs incorporate self-defense, bystander intervention, public speaking, empathy development and gender equality. As a Social Innovation Cheng Fellow, Ashri furthered her research by conducting a randomized trial of 1200 students to evaluate her intervention. As of 2020, the training has reached 10 primary schools in Kisumu. Currently, Ashri is completing her Masters in Public Health at Cambridge University and leading the COVID-19 Taskforce on Domestic Violence.

Globally, 1 in 3 women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime, according to the WHO. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates over 10 million US survivors, before counting those who face child or elderly abuse, every single year. We believe that we can work together to strengthen our communities and create a world where domestic violence is exclusively an injustice of the past. The COVID-19 Taskforce on Domestic Violence aims to investigate, educate, and advocate on behalf of those who have been affected by domestic violence through consolidating information about where and how survivors can get help, analyzing data to identify the unique challenges survivors are facing during this crisis, educating allies on how to support survivors and promoting cross collaboration between organizations in the field.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates that, “nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States”; that aggregates to over 10 million US survivors, before counting those who face child or elderly abuse, every single year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a number of actions from governments and public health organizations, both of which have the same advice: stay at home. However, not all of us are fortunate enough to have a safe home. For some, staying home poses an equal if not greater threat to safety and wellbeing. In this time of quarantine, victims of domestic violence may feel trapped, helpless, and unable to escape from a dangerous situation.

Though the best time to take action is inherently before a crisis when we can make contingency plans for vulnerable groups and strengthen social “safety nets'' in anticipation of increased individual burdens, it is not too late to take action. To best help survivors, we must first quantify the burden survivors of domestic violence face during COVID-19, so that we may then consolidate response information and mobilize resources to address these challenges. 

We believe that when we strengthen our communities by sharing with (1) survivors where and how to get help, (2) allies how to help, and (3) organizations how to work together, we create a world where domestic violence is exclusively an injustice of the past.

The COVID-19 TFDV educates survivors of domestic violence on how and where they are able to receive help and allies on how they can best assist at-risk individuals. Ally resources are divided into subgroups to highlight the unique tools each group can use to identify and support survivors such as family and friends, neighbors, healthcare providers, teachers, and essential workers. We also analyze data to quantify the burden domestic violence survivors face during this health crisis in order to best mobilize resources. More robust data analyses on google trends, website traffic, police report and shelter data will also help support policy and advocacy initiatives. Furthermore, we hope to build a long-term data collection tool that standardizes a method for data collection.In an effort to help domestic violence organizations and other relevant organizations work together, the COVID-19 TFDV facilitates the sharing of effective solutions among partner domestic violence organizations to promote learning and increased collaboration.

Our current projects include data analysis using google trends, website traffic, shelter and police report data, a children's story that promotes safety planning, a translation project of best practices for survivors, allies and healthcare providers into more than 25 languages, working with the SafeNight app to fund hotel nights for survivors, working with the Alliance of NGOS on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to plan a virtual international summit in October (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month), and creating a searchable database of sexual/domestic violence resources by zip code in the US. 

Violence within the home is an issue that affects communities globally. Major barriers impacting its resolution are pervasive feelings of shame, isolation, and lack of support that prevent victims from both recognizing their predicament and seeking help. During a pandemic, these barriers are only magnified and victims are left suffering in silence, forced to choose between enduring an abusive home environment or risking their health. Our goal is to raise awareness about their struggles and use data-driven analyses to determine how to best support them during this time. We strive to elevate those whose voices cannot be heard. 

As the pandemic hit, I was finishing coursework for my master’s degree in public health at the University of Cambridge. On my flight home to Houston, the flight crew handed me forms from the CDC asking for a variety of information, asking about where I had traveled, if I had symptoms, and specific details of where I had planned to quarantine. As a violence prevention advocate, I wondered why no one had asked if I was going home to a safe place. 

The next day, I woke up jet-lagged at 4am to begin looking up resources for those experiencing domestic violence during lockdown. I found that it wasn’t easy to access information. This motivated me to reach out to other passionate individuals. As we talked to more people working on the frontlines in domestic violence organizations and shelters, we identified the specific gaps in this resource infrastructure.  We created the COVID-19 Task Force on Domestic Violence, a database of resources for those living in unsafe home environments during the pandemic.This work then grew to including data analysis, ally education and the promotion of collaboration across organizations. We work to empower survivors and communities against domestic violence. 

While in Kenya four years ago, I asked a class of twelve-year-olds to share their biggest fears. “I’m scared a man will come into my bed at night and put a bag over my head,” Lavenda said.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but like many girls, I grew up fearing sexual assault. My mother had shared her own experience with sexual violence as a teenager – it was the first time I ever saw her cry. While fleeing the Sri Lankan Civil War, my mother was pinned down by two soldiers. Her relatives' pleas - and luck - saved her life.

I have seen, firsthand, how such violence can destroy an individual’s spirit and leave them feeling powerless in seeking care for their well-being. Given my experiences supporting survivors and passion for combatting such violence, it makes my stomach turn to think about survivors trapped at home during this crisis. I strive to empower communities to fight against sexual and domestic violence, an offense which robs many of their confidence, their voice, their dreams, and their desire to live. This is the movement of which I am honored to be a part.

In 2016, I founded Empower to Eliminate, a three-week sexual violence prevention program for 12 to 14-year-olds in Kisumu, Kenya. Teaching self-defense and bystander intervention, we provide students with immediate tools to fight sexual violence. By engaging students in public speaking, empathy development, and gender equality modules, we empower them to challenge unequal gender norms. With the Kisumu Medical Education Trust and Ministry of Education, we designed, implemented, and evaluated the program. I have returned to Kisumu seven times to train local instructors, implement the program in 10 primary schools, and advance  research.

Creating Empower to Eliminate has taught me how to work with a community to deeply understand the nuances of a systemic problem, identify the specific gaps within a resource infrastructure, and innovate to develop effective solutions. Understanding the cultural context, I mobilized trusted village elders, church pastors, and survivors of sexual violence to lead both systems-level and grassroots efforts to change the culture surrounding sexual violence. Developing the curriculum with stakeholders and collecting data to evaluate each program cycle, I grounded my work in evidence-based advocacy. In 2019, I ran a randomized trial of 1200 students to evaluate the program’s efficacy, which showed a significant change in participant attitudes. Since then, I have institutionalized an annual trip for Harvard undergraduates to travel to Kisumu, collaborate with Kenyan university students to train local instructors, and continue empirical research. To date, over 20 Harvard students have traveled to Kisumu, and I have raised over $66,000 for this work.

As we grew from 20 individuals to over 100 members, it became difficult to coordinate efforts and stay motivated. Members stopped attending meetings and contributing to our work. By checking in with members and delegating effectively, I learned how to lead a project involving five interdisciplinary workstreams and generate tangible results quickly. By setting time-specific goals, I have organized diverse projects, including biweekly seminars, social media resource pages with thousands of followers, the submission of local op-eds to support letters to Congress, the distribution of survivor resources to grocery stores, and empirical research specific to domestic violence. From mobilizing volunteers to lead local efforts to identifying key stakeholders, I have learned how to promote collaboration among frontline social workers, academic experts, organization leaders, government officials, and on-the-ground activists. Understanding the sensitive context of domestic violence, I lead the team in characterizing the burden, amplifying existing efforts, and addressing specific gaps. This also taught me how to sustain member engagement given the emotional toll associated with this work, with the added challenge of navigating virtual communication. Mobilizing a diverse team of 84 members to support survivors everyday requires nimble decision-making and motivates me to become a more perceptive and empathetic leader. 

“You want to teach self-defense in my school—how am I supposed beat my wife if she knows self-defense?” asked Mr. Omondi, the school principal. He continued laughing while Patricia, an associate from Kisumu Medical Education Trust in Kenya, smiled awkwardly. I chuckled, “Yes, we hope to teach self- defense along with bystander intervention techniques and public speaking.” Taking pride in changing destructive norms around violence, I felt the pain in my cheeks from my tight smile.

Although many would not consider my silence as a traditional leadership quality, this silence was strategic. As an adaptive leader, every action I made after the horrific joke served my greater purpose of teaching the sexual violence prevention program at his school. I traded the slim possibility that my words of protest against Mr. Omondi would change his behavior for the opportunity to significantly impact the Kenyan youth. That summer, Mr. Omondi gave the approval to teach our curriculum at his school. Our program still runs to this day and we have armed over 1500 children with a powerful voice against the greater injustice of sexual violence for many years to come. Prioritizing their long-term safety is a choice I will not regret.

The COVID-19 Taskforce on Domestic Violence engages multiple stakeholders to combat domestic violence using a multidisciplinary lens. Grounded in evidence-based advocacy, we use data-driven analysis and technology to innovate effective solutions to support survivors during and beyond the pandemic. By understanding current domestic violence support organizations' infrastructures, we identified a specific lack of data collection and analysis, a gap of cross-organization collaboration, and a lack of ally engagement resources. By filling these specific gaps and using technology to transform this space, we hope to reenergize and amplify the efforts of all domestic violence organizations. Furthermore, our goal as an organization is to maintain an intersectional approach to addressing all violence within the home and not solely intimate partner violence. We aim to effect change on multiple levels as well: with survivors, with allies -- including those in healthcare, and with governments and NGOs through our participation in the organization of a virtual international summit to address violence within the home during COVID-19. We believe that if every person knew how to support a survivor the same way children know how to evacuate a building on fire, survivors would be better able to find the peace and safety they deserve.