Presentation of research findings on violence experienced by girls, women and young people
The Spotlight Initiative, a global alliance between the European Union and the United Nations system, in coordination with Fundación Ayuda en Acción, presented studies on the violence experienced by girls, women and young people in their homes and surroundings.
These studies were carried out within the framework of the project “Strengthening the capacity for social research on FGM/C and research practices carried out by young people and the LGTBIQ+ community”.
Through this project, actions were taken to strengthen the fight against violence against women and girls. For the development of the studies, the participation of young people, especially those belonging to the LGTBIQ+ community, was key in their role as researchers.
The youth on the street
This initiative trained more than 60 indigenous, Garífuna and LGTBIQ+ youth from the municipalities of La Ceiba, Central District and Intibucá. All these young people belong to six youth organizations: HUMAC, COMVIDA La Ceiba and the Central Region, Colectivo Violeta, Youth Against Violence, Intibucá Youth Network and volunteers from the Municipal Service for Children, Adolescents and Youth.
The training was hard, but a lot of learning. Through a participatory process, each group of young people in each municipality chose the type of violence they wanted to investigate. Young men and women from the Central Region, for example, focused on violence experienced in a family relationship; the Intibucá group focused on non-battle violence and the La Ceiba youth on domestic violence.
Selenia Reyes, a young researcher from the organization Humans in Action (HUMAC) in the city of Ceiba, Department of Atlantida, stated that “through the interviews we obtained statistics on the types of violence that suffer the most in the municipality of La Ceiba and we came to the conclusion that this domestic violence.
Presentation of the results
The investigation did not remain only in working with interviews between young people. The results have been presented publicly, which has helped youth become empowered with their research.
The presentation of the results of each of the studies was made public through presentations of the studies to municipal authorities and public organizations. The aim of these presentations is for these institutions to feel challenged to eradicate violence against girls, women and populations in vulnerable settings.
“They need to make the young population understand how to eradicate the levels of violence at the community level. Each of us is part of the change,” says Kevin Valerio, COMVIDA of the Central Region.
Through these presentations, youth organizations also test their communication skills to become a communication channel that socializes investigations and, together with the authorities, puts an end to femicide and any kind of violence that affects girls and women.
Data
79% of respondents believe that women suffer more often from domestic violence and 67% express that people from the LGTBIQ+ community are more often affected
88.4% of respondents said that older men are more likely to be violent, and 6.1% of respondents said that older women are more likely to be violent.
94.8% of the respondents believe that there is mental violence in the homes.
52.7% of respondents believe that mental abuse of young people at home is a private problem that must be solved within the family, and 18.8% believe that it is a public problem that the state and society must deal with.
79% of respondents say that violence between couples is very often related to the consumption of alcohol and drugs.
The situation of violence in which women, girls, young people and youth of the LGTBIQ+ community live is invisible. The European Union, the United Nations system, through the Spotlight Initiative and the Ayuda en Acción Foundation, reaffirm their commitment to eliminating all forms of violence against women, young people and girls; and reiterates that its termination is a shared responsibility.
