The campaign highlighted the Centre’s services in the protection and rehabilitation of women and child victims of abuse and the Centre’s 919 hotline

Doha, Qatar – 31 September 2022: The Protection and Social Rehabilitation Centre (AMAN), one of the Qatar Foundation for Social Work centres, concluded its awareness campaign on the (919) hotline at Doha Festival City as part of the Mall’s #Festival Cares community  initiatives. 

The weeklong awareness campaign at Doha Festival City, focuses on AMAN Centre’s target population, which is women and child victims of domestic violence and family dysfunction. 

This campaign aims to spread awareness to enhance the social protection needed to prevent domestic violence and family dysfunction, through reporting violence incidents experienced by any of AMAN’s target population, mainly women and children. AMAN provides the necessary protection by allocating highly professional specialists to monitor, diagnose, document, and report cases in addition to responding to inquiries.

The Hotline awareness campaign witnessed a great turnout since its launch. The audience came from various segments of society, including children and adults including. Their engagement was visible through their visits to the awareness booth and inquiries about the services AMAN provide, including: the (919) hotline service and the online applications for the protection of women and children such as the 'Help me' children’s application, and 'Consult Me' application for women. Visitors to the booth also interacted AMAN’’s initiative 'My Book is My Friend', which is a children’s book vending machine. It also educates them on the dangers associated with playing electronic games.

Commenting on the campaign’s conclusion, Robert Hall, Doha Festival City’s General Manager, said: “A nurturing family is the foundation for a healthy society, and we at Doha Festival City are very keen on the safety and welfare of this fundamental building block of our community. Through our #FestivalCares programme, we continuously support initiatives that empower community’s welfare and growth in Qatar. We are proud of this collaboration with AMAN to address domestic violence and educate the society on resources available to bring relief to the women and children affected by its adverse effects.” Hall also noted the extent of which the public at Doha Festival City was actively engaged with the campaign since its launch.

For her part, Mrs. Hanan Al-Ali, Director of the Communication and Media Office at AMAN, expressed the Centre’s deepest gratitude to Doha Festival City for their support and cooperation in hosting this awareness campaign and embracing it as part of their #FestivalCares programme initiatives. 'As nongovernmental organizations, we are keen to promote the principles of community partnership with the various entities in the country, and we look forward to more cooperation with Doha Festival City Mall in the future to launch similar campaigns. Our common goal is to protect members of society from any violence they may be exposed to, and to strengthen family cohesion to create a safe environment.'

The Social Protection and Rehabilitation Center (AMAN) is dedicated to the protection and rehabilitation of women and children who are victims of domestic violence and family dysfunction, and their reintegration into society.

The 919 hotline service is an advanced service for receiving social protection requests and providing social, legal and psychological advisory services. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and in several languages, including: French, Portuguese, Spanish, Urdu (the most common languages in Southwest Asia such as India, Pakistan and Iran) and Tagalog (the official language in the Philippines and spoken by many peoples in other countries around the world), Mandarin (which is the official language in the People’s Republic of China), in addition to the Arabic and English. The breadth of languages covered is meant to secure protection for the various nationalities and visitors in the country, especially during the major footballing event this year.

In line with the preventative measures set out by the State of Qatar to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and to ensure a safe shopping environment for all, Doha Festival City commits itself to continuous necessary health and safety measures throughout the mall. This includes a thorough mall disinfection treatment on a weekly basis, robust cleaning, and sanitization operations during mall trading hours, 127 hand sanitizing stations installed in the areas that have commonly touched surfaces.