In this week's open access journal PLoS Medicine, Nayreen Daruwalla and colleagues describe the Centre for Vulnerable Women and Children, which serves clients coping with crisis and violence in the urban setting of Dharavi, Mumbai. In order to assist other developing crisis centres, the authors discuss factors that shaped the development of their Centre over six years. They emphasise how intervention is often guided by clients' desire to keep their families together. Successful intervention, the authors advise, requires strong links with health-care providers, police, legal services, and community-based organizations.

Funding: The Centre for Vulnerable Women and Children receives funding from individual donors and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. This work was also supported by the Wellcome Trust (Reference 081052). The study sponsors did not have a role in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Citation:
"Conflict, Crisis, and Abuse in Dharavi, Mumbai: Experiences from Six Years at a Centre for Vulnerable Women and Children."
Daruwalla N, Fernandez A, Salam J, Shaikh N, Osrin D (2009)
PLoS Med 6(7): e1000088. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000088

Source
PLoS Medicine