Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Every year, every fifth woman and girl aged 15 to 49 reports violence. New evidence suggests that the threat of violence against women and girls has increased since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Due to quarantine restrictions, many victims of violence may not have received proper care at the right time. In Uzbekistan, in January-September 2020, 14,849 appeals were received at the rehabilitation and adaptation centers for persons affected by violence.

UN-Women has developed a swift and targeted response to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women and girls and to ensure that long-term recovery benefits them. One of the main measures is to mitigate and reduce gender-based violence, including domestic violence.

In connection with the UN campaign "16 days of active action against gender-based violence" by the Gender Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry for the Support of Mahalla and Family and the United Nations Development Program, as part of the support of the Government of Sweden, the joint project "Empowering women to participate in public administration and increase their activity in social and economic life ”, a mobile application“ Najot ”was developed, the main purpose of which is to protect the rights of victims of violence and provide them with timely assistance.

On the main page of the application there is a "Help button", which is intended for an emergency. If the user has become a victim of domestic violence, then press this button and hold it for more than 3 seconds. The Najot app will send a message to the victim’s family for help and a link to the location.

In order to use the "Help" button, you need to add contacts of loved ones and a message about help in the "Help Contacts" section. You can add up to 5 contacts of relatives who can respond to a message for help. It is recommended that you warn these people about the app in advance.

Also, the user can select the option "Notify the nearest help center", if necessary, so that a notification about the danger for the user is sent to the nearest rehabilitation center.

In the appendix, you can find a list of centers for the rehabilitation and adaptation of women victims of violence and suicide prevention from each region. Having chosen the necessary area, you can get information about the address and contacts of such centers. Also, for navigation, you can see the address of the help centers on the map.

With the help of the application, you can get online help from a psychologist, consultation with a doctor and a lawyer in a difficult situation.

The “Important to know” section contains answers to the most common questions about women’s health, legal basis for protecting women’s rights, family relations, legal issues and others. Also, there are instructions on how to get a protection order. In addition, the user can take tests to determine the type of violence or to understand what violence is.

In this section, the user can take a test and determine the violence in his attitude and understand whether he needs help. For example, if the answers are dominated by the answers "often" and "constantly", then the problem of domestic violence is acute in the user’s family.

Until receiving any assistance with your contact, no matter where and how: all information provided by the user on the occasion will be confidential.

This application is available in Uzbek and Russian. The Najot app will be available for download on the PlayStore soon.