French obstetrician’s 'House of Women' centralizes care for victims of violence

Dr. Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a French obstetrician gynecologist, founded the House of Women in Saint-Denis as a one-stop centre where female victims of violence can receive medical, social and legal support under one roof. Opened in July 2016 on a plot beside the hospital where she ran the maternity ward, the facility has about 20 rooms across two floors, a small garden and a central patio.

Patients have access to psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, legal counsel, general practitioners and gynecologists; the centre organises abortions, repairs genital cutting and hosts a police officer one day a week so women can file complaints on site. About 30,000 women have been treated there since 2016, and roughly 30 similar centres have opened in France and Belgium, with four more to be inaugurated in the coming months.

The project faced years of fundraising hurdles and nearly stalled in 2015 before private donors, including the Kering Foundation among others, kept it alive. In 2021 two private foundations provided about 10 million euros to expand the model across France. The #MeToo movement also increased public momentum for such initiatives.

Dr. Hatem-Gantzer no longer manages day-to-day operations; she now focuses on awareness, fundraising and occasional surgical repairs, and is preparing a new centre for patients aged 3 to 25 amid a reported rise in sexual assaults in schools. A movie about the creation of the original facility will be released in March, and Dr.

Key Topics

Health, Ghada Hatem-gantzer, Saint-denis, Kering Foundation, Metoo Movement, Female Genital Mutilation