CENTER PROFILE
Himaya
KARAKOL · ESTABLISHED 2017 · ULUKMAN DARYGER
Most women arrive here with nothing. Himaya handles everything else so they can focus on getting better.
ABOUT HIMAYA
The crisis center that treats a person as a whole.
Himaya means “protection” in Arabic. The center is run by Public Association Ulukman Daryger in Karakol and has been operating since 2017. What makes Himaya different from most crisis centers is that they treat physical recovery and psychological recovery as the same process. A woman arriving here does not get medical help in one place and counseling somewhere else. She gets both, together, from people who are coordinating around her specific situation.
Himaya provides up to 14 days of round-the-clock residential shelter for women in a range of crises: survivors of violence, single mothers with children, women with disabilities, teenage mothers, pregnant women, and graduates of orphanages. The center also works with elderly women experiencing isolation or abandonment, and women going through difficult divorce situations. The range is deliberate. Himaya was designed to meet women where they actually are, not only those who fit a narrower definition of who deserves a crisis center.
Social workers at Himaya handle everything from food and hygiene to document restoration and legal representation. If a woman has to spend her energy managing practical logistics, she cannot spend it on recovering. So Himaya handles the logistics. The center operates under strict confidentiality rules, and every staff member is individually accountable under Kyrgyz law for protecting each resident’s privacy.
HOW HIMAYA HELPS
Six services. One roof. Everything handled.
Emergency Shelter
Up to 14 days of residential care, around the clock. Accommodation, meals, hygiene supplies, and a safe physical environment managed by trained social workers. For some women, this is the first time in a long time they have been somewhere they do not need to be afraid.
Medical and Social Monitoring
Himaya pays attention to physical health in a way most crisis centers do not. Women arriving from prolonged abuse often have injuries or chronic conditions that need monitoring. A social worker tracks each resident’s health throughout her stay and coordinates any care she needs. Physical strength and emotional recovery are connected, and Himaya treats them that way.
Legal Advocacy and Authority Liaison
The team works directly with local authorities to make sure the laws that are supposed to protect women are actually being applied. Himaya does not hand a woman a list of phone numbers and send her to figure it out. They go with her, or they make the calls on her behalf.
Document Restoration
Many women arrive at Himaya without identification documents. Lost, taken, or never properly issued. Without ID, a woman cannot access employment, housing, healthcare, or state benefits. Social workers handle the bureaucratic process of restoring those documents and secure any state support she is legally entitled to.
Psychological Support
Individual consultations, crisis counseling, and ongoing group work. The day program includes activities, life skills development, and practical preparation for independent living. Not a one-off session — sustained support across the full length of a woman’s stay.
Referral and Coordination
Himaya maintains working relationships with healthcare providers, schools, law enforcement, the Red Cross, and other social protection agencies. When a resident needs something the center cannot provide directly, they know who to call — and they make sure the connection actually happens.
WHO HIMAYA SERVES
Himaya serves women whose situations don't fit a single category.
Himaya takes in survivors of physical and psychological violence, single mothers with young children, women with disabilities, teenage mothers, pregnant women with nowhere safe to go, graduates of orphanages trying to build independent lives, and elderly women who have been abandoned or isolated by their families. They also work with women going through divorce in circumstances where they are at risk. What brings each of them to Himaya is different. What they share is that they need somewhere safe, and someone who will take their situation seriously.
BY THE NUMBERS
14
days of round-the-clock
residential shelter
24/7
care, every day,
all year
6
connected services
under one roof
2017
year Himaya
was established
SUPPORT HIMAYA
Every service Himaya offers runs entirely on donations.
When you donate to Himaya, you are paying for the social worker who spends two days navigating the bureaucracy to restore a woman’s lost identity documents. You are paying for the meals that mean she has the physical strength to get through a court hearing. And you are paying for the psychologist who helps her understand that what happened to her was not her fault — which, for some women, is something they have never heard before.
What Himaya does is hard to maintain. Treating physical and psychological recovery together, handling practical logistics so women do not have to think about them, staying accountable to every resident’s privacy — all of it requires consistent funding to keep going. There is no state budget covering any of this. Your donation is what makes the next stay possible.