{"id":41765,"date":"2023-07-07T01:45:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T08:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=41765"},"modified":"2023-07-14T09:31:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T16:31:38","slug":"fighting-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/07\/07\/fighting-domestic-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting domestic violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lili Ben Ami, founder of the Michal Sela Forum, was in Vancouver last month to talk about how the forum works to save lives and combat domestic violence. (photo by Sid Akselrod)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs Uber disrupted the transportation sector, Airbnb disrupted the tourism industry, and Facebook disrupted telecommunication, the Michal Sela Forum is disrupting the field of domestic violence,\u201d said Adi Sofer Teeni, chief executive officer of Facebook Israel.<\/p>\n

The Michal Sela Forum (MSF) is an Israeli nonprofit \u201cdedicated to saving lives and combating domestic violence through innovation and technological solutions.\u201d After Michal Sela was murdered by her husband, in 2019, Michal\u2019s sister, Lili Ben Ami, founded MSF with the goal of saving the life of the next Michal.<\/p>\n

Ben Ami was in Vancouver last month. She spoke on June 13 at an event presented by CHW (Canadian Hadassah-WIZO) at Beth Israel Synagogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichal was like a butterfly. No one could tell her what to do,\u201d said Ben Ami. This resilience is symbolized by the butterflies in MSF\u2019s logo, and through the organization\u2019s core principles of out-of-the-box thinking, personal entrepreneurship and public awareness, she said. MSF\u2019s goal is to achieve zero femicides per year and Ben Ami is confident that \u201cit\u2019s going to happen,\u201d despite the primitiveness of current systems to fight domestic violence, through the application of available technological capabilities.<\/p>\n

Ben Ami said that \u201cin Israel, domestic violence support is characterized by old world tools,\u201d highlighting the reliance on shelters, law enforcement and welfare centres \u2013 tools that have remained unchanged for 70 years. These reactive solutions do not break the cycle of domestic violence, agreed CHW chief executive officer Lisa Colt-Kotler. In her introduction to Ben Ami\u2019s presentation, Colt-Kotler emphasized CHW\u2019s shift away from immediate crisis support towards empowering victims with financial independence. CHW\u2019s Safety Net program provides essential services such as counseling, resum\u00e9 building and essentials kits for women. They also run holiday and summer camps for children of domestic violence survivors, providing women with an opportunity to continue working while their children are cared for at the camp.<\/p>\n

In her talk, Ben Ami stressed that Israel has the technological capabilities to save lives, and that these capabilities must be applied to fight domestic violence. Each year, on Michal\u2019s birthday, MSF organizes the Safe at Home Hackathon, a three-day-long technological event that brings together more than 600 software engineers to develop startups aimed at preventing domestic violence. Selected teams from the hackathon are invited to the Michal Sela Startup Academy, a three-month professional mentorship program in collaboration with Google. This program enables entrepreneurs to elevate their innovations and work towards implementing them.<\/p>\n

Facilitating the creation of startups is a key focus of MSF \u2013 \u201cwe need 100 startups on the shelf for investors before we can reach our goal,\u201d said Ben Ami. MSF aims to secure a venture capital investment of $10 million to expand and enhance their programs.<\/p>\n

One such program is Michal Sela Canines, which provides women at high-risk of intimate partner violence with a dog for physical and emotional protection. The dog becomes a permanent part of the woman\u2019s family and is given to her for life. The idea was proposed to Ben Ami by a local dog trainer who believes that, if Michal had had a dog on the night she was murdered, she likely would have been protected.<\/p>\n

The canine project not only offers protection, but also aids in trauma healing for both women and children affected by domestic violence. Ben Ami reminded the audience, \u201call the women we protect are mothers.\u201d By the end of 2023, 12 women and 48 children will be part of this program, she said. CHW recently funded a canine, named Maple, and they aim to fund at least five more dogs.<\/p>\n

Michal\u2019s Watch, another initiative, currently offers 130 women a security package designed to safeguard them from intimate partner violence. Developed in partnership with Israeli security experts at Shin Bet, Michal\u2019s Watch equips women with a security camera, a panic button connected to emergency services, 10 self-defence lessons, and a cease-and-desist letter from a law firm against their attacker. Ben Ami described Michal\u2019s Watch as an \u201ciron suit\u201d for women.<\/p>\n

In addition to technological solutions, MSF is dedicated to educating the public on recognizing and addressing domestic violence. Ben Ami reflected that, in Michal\u2019s marriage, although there was \u201cnever a black eye,\u201d nor any visible signs of physical violence before the murder, there was emotional violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe language of domestic violence is universal,\u201d both for the victims and the aggressors, said Ben Ami. MSF collaborated with the best domestic violence experts in Israel to develop five international signals of identifying domestic violence. These signals apply to victims and aggressors, as well as friends and family of victims, and include behaviours such as obsessiveness, maintaining two-faced relationships, gaslighting, and intense overreacting. Graphics detailing these warning signs are publicized around Israel and on social media.<\/p>\n

Ben Ami attributes MSF\u2019s expansive growth and impact in only three years to Michal\u2019s spirit \u2013 to \u201cpeople who knew and loved my sister and wanted to help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the event was Ehud Lehavi, a Vancouver Jewish community member who knew Michal from a Scouts program in Israel. Lehavi has been involved with MSF since its early days. When asked, \u201cCould you believe that, in three years, MSF has accomplished all this?\u201d, Lehavi answered, \u201cWith any other NGO, no. But, with Lili, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Ami said she has always been an activist, throughout her background in education and TV broadcasting. Colt-Kotler described her as a \u201ctrailblazer, a rockstar and a disrupter\u201d and shared a story of taking Ben Ami to Costco upon arriving in Canada. At the store, Ben Ami was recognized and stopped by a woman who told Lili, \u201cYou saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, including on the warning signs of domestic violence, go to msf-global.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alisa Bressler<\/strong> is a fourth-year student at Queen\u2019s University in Kingston, Ont. She is an avid reader and writer, and the online director of the arts and culture publication <\/em>MUSE Magazine. Bressler is a member of the Vancouver Jewish community, and the inaugural Baila Lazarus Jewish Journalism Intern.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lili Ben Ami, founder of the Michal Sela Forum, was in Vancouver last month to talk about how the forum works to save lives and combat domestic violence. (photo by Sid Akselrod) \u201cAs Uber disrupted the transportation sector, Airbnb disrupted the tourism industry, and Facebook disrupted telecommunication, the Michal Sela Forum is disrupting the field […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329,4],"tags":[1668,3057,22460,22458,22459,22457],"class_list":["post-41765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-local","tag-chw","tag-domestic-violence","tag-femicide","tag-lili-ben-ami","tag-lisa-colt-kotler","tag-michal-sela-forum"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}