The aim of this study was to examine women shelters conditions as an organization and how these conditions affect their work with children who have experienced family violence and live in their shelters. In order to achieve a more profound and comprehensive view of the women shelters and their work with these children we selected to execute a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews with collaborators from nine different shelters in Sweden. We found that the women shelter as a non-governmental organization was bicameral and complex where their work with children distinguishes on several areas. We discovered that the women shelters were an organization, affected and formed by its environment. From our empiricism we could distinguish differences on a municipality level where collaborations with schools and social services occur in a resource guided hierarchy which influences the women shelters work with children. The women shelters work also showed to have a focus on the mother, even when they worked with the children. We also found that the shelters work varied in ways of including ideological foundations of moral to its work and therefore where directed and adapting their work with children from different approaches to its working procedures. As a conclusion, women shelters work with children can appear as a lottery of support and help due to its variations in what help the children are offered on their shelters.

Participatory communication through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been identified to enhance self-dependency and equality for local communities in development projects. As well, ICTs served as an accelerator for citizen participation in social movements, such as in Egypt. However, it is still questionable how participation and ICTs are understood on a global scale where structural inequalities between developing and developed countries might influence communication processes. Similarly, international organizations often address a global network of stakeholders with various economic and social backgrounds. However, it is unclear how participatory communication and ICTs are used in global organizations aiming to foster sustainable development. Hence, this thesis investigates the understanding and practices of participatory communication and the role of ICTs in a global network organization, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) based in Stockholm. The GWPs network consists of 2964 institutional partners in 172 countries worldwide. It can be seen that the GWP aims to achieve dialogic communication with local partners, but that they do not have a mechanism that ensures continuous participation in all working processes, although the local partners demand more possibilities to contribute and participate. As well, ICTs play a minor role in addressing the GWP network. In fact, most of the partner organizations do not have reliable internet access and insufficient English literacy, which makes communication through ICTs especially challenging.This suggests that globally operating organizations should be careful not to reproduce existing power relationship between developed and developing countries through the use of ICTs. As well, more mechanisms need to be established which ensure more participation in organization’s processes.