Ending domestic abuse in Latin America

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)