AWSAD has a comprehensive case management system in place and this is thoroughly documented in hard copy and digital forms. Each resident has a profile folder in which is kept a chronology of all activities she engaged in while at AWSAD. Records of the history of a resident are also filed including entry documents, consent forms, assessment documents, and information on their exit and reintegration. In addition to this, a resident’s medical and psychological counselling records are maintained by the clinic and the counsellor respectively.

AWSAD uses a specially developed tool called the ‘outcome star’ to assess clients’ overall progress in wellbeing. A client’s economic empowerment, health, social empowerment, legal status, children’s status, accommodation, self-confidence and safety are assessed on a scale of 1 to 10, and notes further explain each. The tool also identifies ‘key factors that have supported change,’ ‘key factors that have hindered change,’ and ‘key actions identified.’ Clients are assessed one month after arrival, every three months after that and before discharge.

The Addis Ababa AWSAD safe house is located in a secure location in central Addis Ababa. The site is unmarked and confidential in order to preserve the privacy and safety of survivors staying at the shelter. The rented property has office quarters, dormitories, class rooms, counselling rooms, a clinic, a kitchen, a playground and some green space and has a capacity to serve 50. However, all AWSAD safe houses are often operating over capacity refusing to turn away survivors.

AWSAD furnishes several additional facilities at its safe houses such as a 24- hour working staff, first aid supplies and wheelchairs. Sharp objects like knives and blades are not allowed in the residential areas for safety purposes.AWSAD gets regular inspections by the fire department. Like all the other safe houses, the Addis Ababa safe house is women’s only with few or no male employees. This is for the comfort of clients (for instance, rape victims) who are highly affected by even the sight of men. Male children of residents are only allowed to stay in the shelters until they reach the age of seven.

In Adama town 100 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, are two AWSAD safe houses called the Adama safe house and Oromia safe house, adjacent to one another.

The Adama safe house – named the Konjit Safe House in memory of the late AWSAD’s founding chair Konjit Fekade – was established in 2011 and has the capacity to serve 25 women and girl survivors of violence coming from Adama town. The Oromia safe house, established in 2015 and which is also the largest of its kind in the country with a capacity of 50 beds, serves women and girls from the wider Oromia region.