Ending domestic abuse in Latin America

Dear Supporters!

Welcome to our fourth quarterly report on your contributions towards our Research Project In Latin America.

First Executive Report Launch in Peru

During the summer the executive report about the research on domestic violence in Peru has been published. “Within Four Walls”(At the moment the full report is only available in Spanish). The research provides important information regarding evangelical households in Peru including:

• Levels of domestic violence and child abuse
• Beliefs and perceptions around domestic violence
• Details about how faith can influence change to overcome the practices that support abuse
• The role of the faith actors in supporting women and children leaving abusive relationships

It also provides conclusions and recommendations on how pastoral care can be improved, focusing particularly on child protection.

Some of the main figures in the report are:

4 out of 10 evangelical Christians denied the possibility of violence within their households.

40% of men and 60% of women were victims of some kind of abuse during their childhood.

7 out of 10 people recognized that they have suffered abuse at least once in the last three years.

These staggering figures fuel our commitment to work together with local communities, churches, civil society and any other organization to see this reality change. Your financial support is key to enable us to do this. We are looking for the last financial resources to be able to print the reports for the remaining three countries, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, so if you would like to help us with this, please donate[1].

A launch was held at the Peruvian Congress where not only faith organisations abut also political representatives were present.  The “Covenant 2021” initiative was presented and different organizations signed up to this.

Covenant 2021 is an initiative to work together; the church, civil society and local Government, to free local communities from violence against children, women and men and promote healthy relationships between all the members of the family.

We are delighted to be able to participate in this initiative through our member Paz y Esperanza and we will keep you up to date with any developments.

Our work in Argentina

Through one of our members, Comunidad y Cambio in Argentina, we have been able not only to conduct the research but also to galvanize the support of the faith leaders in the communities around the region of Cordoba to raise awareness and change the way domestic violence is perceived as a ‘couples issue’.

When participating in the research sessions, both female and male leaders where keen to find out more about the dynamics of abuse and how to effectively support victims and challenge perpetrators.

This is a very important step forward and is really encouraging as we look to design a campaign that will look to raise awareness about domestic violence but also increase the visibility of the resources available to support everyone involved.

For those supporting our work from the UK, We would like to share our most recent news……

Restored on Radio 4

The Archbishop of Canterbury has endorsed Restored. The Archbishop’s commendation was picked up by the Sunday programme on Radio 4.  On 31 August they interviewed Peter and Mandy, Restored’s Co-Directors, as well a Christian survivor of abuse and a representative from the Ava Project (http://www.avaproject.org.uk/).

We were able to talk about the fact that violence against women also happens in churches, that inappropriate teaching can exacerbate the situation and that Restored provides training for churches to be more aware and equipped to respond to the issues. 

You can hear the programme again at, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04fy1cc#programme-broadcasts our feature is about 16 minutes and 30 seconds into the programme.

[1]Due to the characteristics of the communities in Latin America printed material is still the main way to communicate, raise awareness and train people.  Therefore is very important not to only have the executive reports on- line but also to print and distribute them to the churches in each country.

Links:

• Executive Report Peru - Within 4 Walls (Spanish)
• Details of Covenant 2021 Initiative (Spanish)
• BBC4 radio program highlighting the work of Restored

Hi everyone, it is brilliant to be able to report back to you again, and once more thank you for the support you have given us and for sustaining your interest in this amazing opportunity to challenge the machismo culture in Latin America. We are committed to using the channels provided by churches to bring about change and improve the lives of women and men in our beloved continent.

As you know we work together with Paz y Esperanza who are leading the resaeach in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia and with Comunidad y Cambio who are leading the research in Argetnina. It has been challenging times putting together the research but we are finally on the last stages and we now have the first infographic that will be launch next week in Peru. (I am attaching a copy for you to read).

Each country is working of putting together the executive summary and during the summer we will have launch events in each country, with the aim of engaging as many churches as possible. This is very important as we hope this will give us a wide base of people who will support the Campaign in the near future.

As you know we are a Christian organization and our partners are also Christian organizations and our work which will benefit people from all faiths or no faith is done through the Christian churches in Latin America. It has been very encouraging to be reminded of why this is important and relevant. This month we had the privilege as part of the We Will Speak Out Coalition  to participate in the Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict Conference (10^th-13^th of July 2014 @Excel London). It was an opportunity to share what faith organizations are doing to counteract the effects of sexual violence but also the work that is done on the ground on prevention with people from all faiths and no faith. One of the highlight for us was to have the recognition of the key role that faith and faith organizations can play in changing attitudes and bring about transformation to individuals and communities as is stated in the summary document

 “We noted that good laws and international agreements in themselves are not enough if attitudes don’t change. In this respect, faith groups have a key role to play, including in their role providing care, treatment and support for survivors. Through their networks, they often have access and influence with local communities that no other actor has. As such, they are uniquely placed to change hearts and minds, and challenge cultural and social norms, including notions of masculine identity as it affects sexual violence. The Summit recognised the need to engage faith-based organisations as active partners in the fight against sexual violence, both in helping to formulate strategy and in providing front-line support to survivors.”
Chair's Summary - Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict  13/04/14

We recognise that the Christian faith has been use in very unhelpful and damaging ways to inflict abuse and perpetuate injustice, and precisely because of this we believe that a response from the faith perspective is needed and, more than that, is required.

On this note I would like to inspire you to once again support us for the next phase of our project.  We have a unique opportunity to empower Latin-American women and men to transform the way we relate to each other, and to our spouse, partner etc.

To talk about domestic violence is to talk about the power we all hold within our relationships and how this can be misused to inflict pain and create dependency. Through the study you helped to fund, we have uncovered key beliefs and perceptions that underpin the machismo culture and fuel violence inside the home. This will guide the designing process of the campaign that we hope will challenge these beliefs and perceptions and offer alternative answers to questions around identity for women and men and model new ways to relate to each other and use the power that we all have within a relationship.   

There are exciting opportunities in the pipe-line for example:

• working in masculinities through football, an initiative that is already in place in the coast of Colombia with one of our partners, Doulos and that has huge potential to be replicated in other areas
• Awareness training in domestic violence for hairdressers: It has been identified that the hairdresser is a very likely place for domestic abuse to be disclosed so to provide the right information and referral contacts can be crucial. Again this has great potential to be replicated in other areas and to have an immediate impact on women’s possibilities to leave abusive relationships.

We really hope you are inspired by this report to the point you want to share it and invite others to support us. We are small organization with low overheads, and are working in partnership with other organizations in Latin-Americana so that we can bring transformation on both sides of the water.

Please contact us if you have any questions or visit our website for more information about us.

Links:

• This is a small presentation of our partner in Argentina
• 15 sec msg from our Co-director Peter Grant about men and VAW

• Infographic (PDF)