"You are not alone!": McDonald's Austria Starts Cooperation with Women's Helpline

The support offered by the Women's Helpline will soon be found in the women's restrooms of over 200 local McDonald's restaurants across Austria. With specially designed stickers, the company raises awareness among its guests about violence against women and supports the Women's Helpline in providing easy access to their counseling services.

One in Three Women in Austria Affected by Violence: Stickers in Women's Restrooms to Help

Violence against women is not a private issue but a societal problem: According to Statistics Austria, one in three women in Austria is affected by violence. To raise awareness among the approximately 400,000 daily guests and to make it easier for victims to access support, McDonald's Austria is launching a cooperation with the Women's Helpline, which is part of the Association of Autonomous Austrian Women's Shelters (AÖF). As part of the cooperation, stickers with the text "Here you can find help. You are not alone!" and the Women's Helpline phone number will be placed on the doors of women's restrooms in all McDonald's restaurants in Austria in the coming weeks.

"It is important to us to not only talk about our successes in promoting women around International Women's Day. We welcome guests from all generations and all areas of society in our restaurants every day and see it as our responsibility to use our size, with over 200 restaurants from Burgenland to Vorarlberg, to draw attention to this important and easily accessible support offer for affected women," explains Ellen Staudenmayer from McDonald's Austria.

Anonymous Helpline Supports Women in Austria for 27 Years

Since its founding in 1998, the Women's Helpline has been supporting victims of violence with its low-threshold services. The helpline is available 365 days a year, around the clock, multilingual, and free of charge nationwide. A central goal of the counseling is to bring violence out of the private sphere and to strengthen women's self-responsibility - following the principle of "help for self-help." The anonymity of the callers is always maintained. "We conduct a large number of anonymous counseling sessions every year. Many of those affected are ashamed to be victims of domestic violence. It is all the more important to make those affected from all areas of society aware of counseling services like the Women's Helpline at various contact points," explains the managing director of the AÖF association, into which the Women's Helpline was integrated in 1999.

(Red)

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