The product of domestic violence experts, legal experts, and experts from elite Israeli security units, Michal Sela Canines is the only long-term, mobile solution in existence for women at high risk of intimate partner violence. There are hundreds of thousands of battered women in Israel. Domestic violence does not discriminate based on socio-economic status, religion, race, or ethnicity. This is a serious social issue that requires intervention and transformational change.
Since March 2020, with the start of COVID-19 and the accompanying quarantines and social and economic upheaval, women’s shelters have been overloaded. And now, with the war, families are facing the same hardships and increased risk of domestic violence. While life-saving, solutions such as shelters and restraining orders are implemented only after something horrible has already happened. In addition, moving out of the family home and into a shelter is yet another traumatic experience for women and their children on top of an already traumatic experience.
Michal Sela Canines is a less expensive and more long-term, practical solution than shelters. For women under constant threat of violence, even going to the grocery store or dropping their children off at school can be a source of fear and anxiety. The physical and emotional toll of constant terror becomes unbearable. The dog is a life-saving gift that gives the woman and her children quality of life and physical and emotional security. With their canine, they can regain freedom of movement in their own communities. They can remain in their homes, at their jobs, and in their schools. The dogs also provide emotional security and mitigate the deep loneliness and fear that accompanies domestic violence.
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