About us
Shalom Bait means "Peace at Home".
We defend the right to live in a home free of violence.
We are a cross-discipline professional team made up by women psychologists, lawyers, social workers and physicians specialized in gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and child abuse. We deal with violence against women adopting a comprehensive approach and integrating a gender perspective, providing psychological support, legal counseling, legal representation, and prevention and training activities.
Fernanda Tarica
Physician
Founder and Director of Shalom Bait
In addition to carrying out the directing of the organization, she conducts admission interviews, co-coordinates groups of women who are victims of gender-based violence, and devises projects for presenting in both national and international calls.
Her work in Family Violence began in 1999 in the Argentine Family Violence Prevention Association, where she was part of the team assisting men who inflict violence. She was a member of the Board of Directors of ASAPMI (Argentine Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse) and of the supervision team at the Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson Shelter for Women who are Victims of Gender-Based Violence in the City of Buenos Aires. She has been a guest lecturer in congresses and graduate classes related to this issue and in institutions related to the fields of health, health centers, hospitals, and the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
After conducting extensive research and field work, in 2001 she began the process of creating a project to provide comprehensive assistance to gender-based violence victims, which led to the founding of Shalom Bait in 2003.
fernanda@shalombait.org.ar
Diana Rosenhek
Attorney
Founder of Shalom Bait and Legal Affairs Coordinator
Specialized in Family Law, she built a career in this field for 10 years. She began to work exclusively on this topic in 2003, when she joined this project and started the organization together with Director Fernanda Tarica.
In Shalom Bait, she coordinates the Legal Affairs Department, where she is responsible for the following up and supervising of the legal interventions made. She also provides legal counsel both individually and in groups of women, as well as legal representation related to abuse reports, contact orders, self care, financial support, and divorce. She is a member of the institution’s training team. She was a member of the Board of Directors of ASAPAMI, the Argentine Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse, and was a guest lecturer in congresses and graduate classes related to this issue.
Hebe Klajn
Attorney and mediator specialized in Family Law
In Shalom Bait, she is a member of the Legal Affairs Department, where she provides legal counsel both individually and in groups of women, as well as mandatory legal representation in violence reports and other legal proceedings related to this issue (such as financial support, contact orders, self care, parental responsibility, divorce) from a cross-discipline approach.
She has been part of the Shalom Bait team since 2014, when she began working in this field.
Ester Siegel
Psychologist
In Shalom Bait, she co-coordinates groups of women who are victims of gender-based violence, the group of mothers protecting children who are victims of sexual abuse, and the group of women who survived sexual abuse in their childhoods. She works as a trainer in several training activities organized by this institution. She joined our team in 2014. At the same time, she has worked as a court-appointed expert witness for Federal Courts since 1989, directing and evaluating psychical harm.
She began working in the field in 1985, in the first Project for the Prevention and Assistance of Beaten Women at the School of Public Health of the School of Medicine (University of Buenos Aires). She was a member of the Board of Directors of ASAPAMI, the Argentine Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse, from 2005 through 2015. In addition, she was the main expert in Gender and Health in Region V, in the province of Buenos Aires, from 2013 through 2016.
Cecilia Tysz
Psychologist
In Shalom Bait, she co-coordinates groups of women who are victims of gender-based violence, and deals with admissions, individual interviews, and cross-discipline interviews. She joined the Shalom Bait team in 2018.
Cecilia began working in this field in 2004 at the Álvarez Hospital, applying the Protocol for Assistance to Women Victims of Sex Violence. She worked as a psychologist providing assistance and prevention services in the Gender Policy Management of the Tigre Authority, and as Coordinator of the “Encuentro” (encounter) Program for Women in the neighborhoods of said Municipality.
Antonia Balsalobre
Psychologist
In Shalom Bait, she conducts admission interviews, co-coordinates groups of women who are victims of gender-based violence, as well as the group of survivors to child abuse. She works as a trainer in several training activities organized by the institution. She was part of the team from 2005 through 2007 and resumed her position in 2015. At the same time, she works as a psychologist specialized in Gender-Based Violence in the Center for Women and Public Policy in Vicente López.
She began working on this issue in 2002 providing workshops on Sexuality, Gender, and Contraceptive Methods. She was summoned by the “Sociedad Universitaria Mundial” (World University Society) and was a member of the team of the NGO “Decidir” (Deciding), where she works in admissions, group coordination, and as a psychotherapist for women who are victims of gender-based violence. She has also held prevention workshops and coordinated groups of men with violent behavior.
Hilda Radrizzani
Psychologist and Social Worker
In Shalom Bait, she conducts admission interviews and co-coordinates groups of women who are victims of gender-based violence, as well as the group of mothers protecting children who were victims of sexual abuse. She takes part in several training activities organized by the institution. She joined the Shalom Bait team in 2011. Hilda began her work in this field in 1994, providing services as a social worker in a Family Court in the City of Buenos Aires, where she still works today.
Victoria Martínez
Secretary
She is who assists and receives women when they arrive in Shalom Bait for the first time, looking for a way out of the violent situation they are immersed in. She carries out administrative work and provides permanent support to all areas of the institution.
Milena Tarica
Communication and design
In Shalom Bait he works doing web design, graphic campaigns, material for social networks and institutional pieces. His work is transversal, giving support to the areas of communication, training, prevention, assistance and institutional development.
OUR STORY
Shalom Bait is a civil society organization founded in 2003 within the Jewish community, with the object of raising awareness, training sensitivity, and dealing comprehensively with violence against women and children. Until that moment, this was an issue very few people wanted to discuss; it remained hidden, in the privacy of the home. The fact of belonging to a minority, a gregarious social group, and with a history of persecution, contributes to keeping problems “inside”. By denying their existence, the victims are also denied. Our starting point was identifying the need of giving this issue a voice within the Jewish community, but from the very beginning our commitment was to make it applicable to the society as a whole. Gender-based violence makes no distinction between race, social class, or religion.
In short time we made ourselves known. We started a newspaper, the Kol Shalom Bait (“the Voice of Shalom Bait”) which we still produce, where we write about gender-based violence, share testimonies, and circulate the activities we organize. We raised our voice, and in no time the queries and the calls for support of violence victims arrived.
We have made our own the famous reflection of Nobel Peace Prize Elie Weisel: “In the face of atrocities, we must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Throughout these years we have built a reliable space where women are heard, valued and encouraged.This is and has been our greatest achievement. A victim of violence needs to be received with empathy, to be believed in, and not to be judged. She needs her pace to be respected and whenever she decides to file an action, she needs to count on a well-trained attorney that may defend her and her children. The way out is long and winding, and victims and survivors need support, not only to file a suit, but also to face new situations. Because violence doesn’t end there, and the answers of the State in general are scarce and re-victimizing.
From the first day we set the goal of providing committed and responsible support, starting a model of valuable intervention through which group psychological assistance, legal counsel, and legal representation could be provided.
Looking back is comforting to us; we know many things remain to be done and we keep on devising new projects. The work we have done has been possible thanks to the team of professionals and volunteers, and of course, our donors and members.
Year after year we re-commit ourselves the same way we did on day one. We haven’t lost the enthusiasm, we haven’t lost the passion, we haven’t lost the outrage, or the love. Because our position is that all people deserve to live in homes free of violence and where good treatment and love are present. Shalom Bait is no doubt an institution driven mainly out of love.
