Photo: ©LAAHA.ORG

Laaha – A safe place online

A virtual safe place for girls and women, a website that provides knowledge and information about women's health, their rights and what help is available if they are victims of gender-based violence.

One in three women experience violence in their lifetime and 12 million girls are married before they turn 18. The violence worsens during humanitarian crises, for example during climate disasters and in areas of unrest and great poverty, everyone is vulnerable, especially women and girls.

Laaha, is the first digital web-based platform that UNICEF has created together with women and girls from crisis-affected regions. It must spread knowledge about gender-based violence (GBV = Gender based violence) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH = Sexual and reproductive health) through fact-based information to women and girls. Secure communication should reduce isolation and strengthen friendships.

Safety is an important factor in the work to give women and girls access to information, links to various services, skills development and support, especially during humanitarian crises. Yet women and girls often face barriers to accessing these safe spaces due to distance, security concerns, harmful gender norms and responsibilities for house and home.

How does Zonta help?

Over the next two years, Zonta International has committed to contribute $750,000 to UNICEF USA to support the Laaha Project and to provide high-quality, fact-based information to girls and women on hygiene and menstrual health, healthy relationships, human rights, financial literacy , literacy, female anatomy and also what services are available for women and girls who are exposed to violence.

How does Laaha work?

Participants have access to information and services in a way that is safe and culturally appropriate. The scheme is also available for teenage girls and women with disabilities as well as for those who are already married off. Laaha provides information through articles, podcasts and videos about their rights as women and girls, their bodies, their health and where to find the help they need. An interactive chat box allows the user to find answers and have the opportunity to speak with trained GBV specialists who moderate the chat conversation. The forum is overseen by a team of advisors from local partner organisations. To ensure system security and integrity, the forum's posting features are disabled during times when the moderators are unavailable. Laaha also supports complete anonymity and does not collect any personally identifying information such as name, phone number or other details. To ensure accessibility, Laaha content is based on simple and concise text and instead emphasizes videos and other visual formats. Everything to be able to engage all users, regardless of their literacy or digital habits. An exit button, which is always visible on the screen, enables a quick exit from the website and clears the chat.

Goals 2024-2026

The goal is to increase knowledge about GBV and sexual and reproductive health and to reduce isolation by building safe support functions and good friend contacts.

The platform is currently available in seven languages: English, Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Spanish, Kurdish and Ukrainian.

The goal is also to reach one million women and girls worldwide and for the content to be available in 20 different languages by 2026 at the latest.

More about the project

A detailed project description of the collaboration between Zonta International and UNICEF USA is available here.