Ending domestic abuse in Latin America

We are very grateful to all who have supported our project to challenge machsmo culture and domestic abuse in Latin America. Work is underway on the baseline studies of violence in the church in four countries. The reports are expected in the last quarter of this year when we will be able to comment on the extent of the problem and to design our response. The project is led by Restored-member Peace and Hope from Peru.  In a moving account of how domestic abuse has affeceted one family in Bolivia, Peace and Hope's Director, Alphonso Weiland, explains why this project is so necessary: 

"I am here to visit a neighborhood near the fifth ring of the Bolivian City of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) is a booming Bolivian city, with its population of nearly 2 million. It is 11 am on a Wednesday, and what stands out most to me are the young people packed into precarious arcade venues to play games on ancient computers. There is no police station here and only one school. A Brazilian pastor ministering in this neighborhood asks us to visit Blanca and her three young kids.  She and her children emerge from a dilapidated shack.

Blanca is a 32-year-old woman with a distant gaze and broken speech. Angie, her oldest daughter, is just 12 years old. The other children appear to be between 10 and 7 years old. The pastor asks Blanca to tell her story. “I got married when I was in love, impressed by how he spoke, by his way of helping others, his apparent concern for suffering families.” She went on with a pained voice, “But one day I realized he was cheating on me with another woman. I confronted him, telling him that the Bible says: “No one can serve two masters’ therefore you cannot serve two women either.” But he ignored me. He told me he was a servant of the Lord and that the other woman made him happy, but I did not." He physically and verbally abused her from that point on. She asked him to leave, to let her be, told him that all she needed from him was help to supporting the children. Later on, she found out that he had not had only one relationship, but several with different women, all of them from the church where he served as associate pastor. Worn out, Blanca decided to talk. She asked for an appointment with the leaders of the evangelical church and told them her story. Their response was: “You should be patient, reconcile with your husband, he has a ministry think of.”  As she talks, her legs begin to tremble, and her eyes drop further. Angie, the child, says in a firm voice: "Don’t worry, mom. Relax. That man will never put a hand on you again. I am taking care of you.”

Santa Cruz bears witness to how women and children have to carry heavy crosses each and every day, crosses of pain and fear.  According to official statistics, of every 100 couples, 14 women have suffered serious injuries (wounds and fractures) at the hands of their husband or male partner.  The department of Santa Cruz reports the highest rate of sexual violence against boys and girls in Bolivia."