VENEZUELA:
Anti-Domestic Violence
Campaign Targets Men
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, (IPS) -
If the coffee is cold,
he goes ballistic,
smashes the cup on the
floor and lashes out at
his partner. If she
doesn’t come running
when he calls, or their
daughter cries, he
shouts impatiently and
hits her. These are some
of the scenes in
unprecedented TV spots
now appearing in
Venezuela.
Sports newspapers,
racing magazines, movie
theatres, community
radio stations and TV
stations are publishing
or screening brief ads
as part of the new
campaign "Count to
Three: You, she, your
family. Bring out what’s
best in you. Stop the
violence."
"Previous campaigns have
been aimed at women,
encouraging them to
report domestic
violence, but this one
is directed at male
aggressors, inviting
them to reflect about
violence against women
and girls, without
piling on the blame,"
Leoncio Barrios, a
professor of social
psychology at the
Central University of
Venezuela, told IPS.
Changing the message has
been discussed for
years. "The question
used to be, ‘Why does
she put up with it?’
instead of ‘Why does he
hit her?’ Now we want to
get men on our side, so
that they stop hitting
and insulting women,"
said Ofelia Álvarez,
head of Fundamujer, a
non-governmental
organisation (NGO) that
works for the prevention
of domestic violence.
Count to Three will
reinforce work aimed at
violent men, "who often
have trouble admitting
their faults and
frequently lash out at
their partners as a
result," Luisa Limada,
an activist at the
Women’s House in Rio
Caribe, a fishing
village in Venezuela’s
northeastern Paria
peninsula, told IPS.
The new campaign is the
result of synergy
between NGOs, the state
Institute for Women,
United Nations agencies
in Venezuela and Fondo
Común, a private bank.
The bank is the main
source of the 300,000
dollars spent on the
campaign, "but it is
only fair to recognise
that it is being
supported by invaluable
voluntary
contributions," Víctor
Gill, the bank’s
president, told IPS.
He pointed out that the
campaign will use
advertising space on
public and private
television and radio
stations, set aside by
law for the Information
Ministry.
The campaign is designed
to run from Sept. 21,
International Day of
Peace, to Nov. 25,
International Day for
the Elimination of
Violence against Women.
Worldwide, "one out of
three women has been
beaten, coerced into
sex, or otherwise
physically abused during
her lifetime. Usually
the offender is a member
of her own family," said
David McLachlan-Karr,
coordinator of the U.N.
system in Venezuela,
quoting from an October
2006 U.N. report.
In 2005, NGOs received
36,777 complaints from
women who had suffered
domestic violence, in
this country of 27
million people. And for
every case that comes to
light, nine go
unreported, the NGOs
said.
Television screenwriter
Leonardo Padrón, at the
launch of the campaign
at a Caracas theatre on
Sept. 21, said that when
the law on violence
against women and the
family was approved in
1999, he had the central
character in his soap
opera "El país de las
mujeres" (The Country of
Women) receive a copy of
the law in booklet form
as a gift from an
admirer.
In the scene, the woman,
a policeman’s wife who
is a victim of domestic
abuse, goes down to the
police station to file a
complaint against her
husband, only to find
him at the reception
desk. She makes him type
entire paragraphs of the
text of the law, as part
of her statement.
"Months later I got a
letter of thanks from
the Institute for Women.
After that episode was
aired, women’s
complaints reporting
domestic violence had
tripled," he said.
In contrast, two years
ago several television
screenwriters were asked
to a meeting by then
Health Minister
Francisco Armada, to ask
them to include public
health issues in their
storylines, which they
gladly agreed to do.
"Since I’m not an expert
on the issue, I asked
the ministry to send me
information, statistics
and materials to include
in scenes and dialogues.
But the officials in
charge never sent what
they’d promised, and I
was left dangling,"
Padrón said.
On the basis of these
experiences, Padrón
called for "originality
and perseverance," and
for better use to be
made of resources like
soap operas, because
they are "products that
are watched by the
majority of people in
Latin America."
But issues should be
"merely suggested,
without being too
obviously overdone or
forced," he added.
Morelia Jiménez, an
expert on gender issues
with the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA),
told IPS that Count to
Three is "the first
campaign against
domestic violence to be
entirely designed and
produced in Venezuela,"
and that it seeks to
influence advertisers
and screenwriters for
film and television.
"We also want the U.N.
system to adopt it as a
cornerstone of its next
regional campaign, in
the 16 days of action
for a world free of
violence against women,
planned for Nov. 25 to
Dec. 10," Jiménez said.
Before the start of the
Count to Three campaign,
a survey was done of
1,200 men aged between
13 and 55 from all
socioeconomic
backgrounds, to explore
their beliefs,
perceptions and
attitudes towards
violence against women.
This will be repeated
after the campaign in
order to gauge its
repercussions. |
