01.05.2016
We started today's meeting with a speaker and a representative for the UN office that specifically works with human rights and justice for women of El Salvador. Like the U.S., El Salvador struggles with many social issues and implementing policies to make improvements. It can take years, decades, or longer to have any change, Women are underrepresented in the country, but also worldwide. Mousy, our speaker, put a lot of emphasis on domestic abuse, break of traditional family, illegality of abortion, and poor utilization of contraceptives. An interesting case she has worked with are of the 17 women accused of aborting their babies when in reality they miscarried. For this, they are imprisoned. This was a very humbling experience, but nothing compared to what we would hear in the afternoon. "My husband was assassinated... they cut his throat... shot his face... stabbed him all over his body" was the description a women in extreme psychological distress explained as her words brought herself and all of us to tears. Now, her only wish is to bring her boys and family to a secure, safe environment by fleeing the country. This is no easy task because the volume of violence is so high, her story is one example of millions. Another man explained his desire to immigrate. As a sales manager for a food distribution company, the gangs have infiltrated and pressured the workers to making it impossible to bring forth reformation. Hearing these personal accounts were very moving. In our debrief, we commented that we must continue to place ourselves in positions of discomfort so that we can comprehend all sides of conflict. To feel guilt, hopelessness, fear, etc. is never something we will get used to.
We started today's meeting with a speaker and a representative for the UN office that specifically works with human rights and justice for women of El Salvador. Like the U.S., El Salvador struggles with many social issues and implementing policies to make improvements. It can take years, decades, or longer to have any change, Women are underrepresented in the country, but also worldwide. Mousy, our speaker, put a lot of emphasis on domestic abuse, break of traditional family, illegality of abortion, and poor utilization of contraceptives. An interesting case she has worked with are of the 17 women accused of aborting their babies when in reality they miscarried. For this, they are imprisoned. This was a very humbling experience, but nothing compared to what we would hear in the afternoon. "My husband was assassinated... they cut his throat... shot his face... stabbed him all over his body" was the description a women in extreme psychological distress explained as her words brought herself and all of us to tears. Now, her only wish is to bring her boys and family to a secure, safe environment by fleeing the country. This is no easy task because the volume of violence is so high, her story is one example of millions. Another man explained his desire to immigrate. As a sales manager for a food distribution company, the gangs have infiltrated and pressured the workers to making it impossible to bring forth reformation. Hearing these personal accounts were very moving. In our debrief, we commented that we must continue to place ourselves in positions of discomfort so that we can comprehend all sides of conflict. To feel guilt, hopelessness, fear, etc. is never something we will get used to.