By Carolina Kuzaks-Cardenas | Latin American Coordinator
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:
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:
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