Gender-Based Violence Project Gaining Community Support
The Gender-Based Violence project began in November 2017 in meetings with 80 leaders from 18 communities in the lower Napo River. With a grant from the World Bank, DB Peru and the University College of London have embarked on supporting local health workers with training and materials for them to work with their communities to develop solutions for prevention of this crippling problem for women and families. View our Gender-based violence project >
In April 2017 Renzo Peña was speaker at the World Bank Awards Ceremony for The Development Marketplace: Innovations to Prevent Gender-based Violence in Washington DC.
Interview with Renzo Peña at World Bank in Washington DC
https://www.facebook.com/bancomundial/videos/1664987060196095/
Video starts 35 seconds into the conversation
The reception from the communities has been extremely positive, indicating that the people are ready to address a very complicated and debilitating problem. Each leader has taken actions specific to the needs of his/her own community. The World Bank extended their grant time until October 2019 to carry forward this most important project. A 55-page manual was written by the health workers on how to work with communities on prevention of gender-based violence.
For more information on the project please click this link: gapprojectperu.com
As we emerged from the COVID pandemic, the work has continued by the dedicated health workers. They have each chosen one or more villages to work with in order to carry forward the prevention of gender-based violence, using their own manual as a guide. In our 2022 survey with the communities, domestic violence was a recurring theme, and many villages are now asking for help in learning how to tackle this difficult social problem.
The research and booklet have been disseminated to the Minister of Health in Iquitos, Peru.