The Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF) has launched a fund to support initiatives in the Americas to end domestic violence: physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
Mr. Jerry Rivera, a popular salsa singer, was selected as a Health Champion by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). He is speaking out against domestic violence and has lent his support to the End Domestic Violence (Terminemos con la Violencia Domestica) fund.
Singer Jerry Rivera, recently named a Champion of Health of the Americas by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will promote the fund as part of a public outreach campaign against domestic violence launched late last year.
Gifts to the new End Domestic Violence Fund (“Terminemos con la Violencia Domestica”) may help support the establishment of shelters for battered women and their families, the promotion of women’s self-help groups, and the design and implementation of evidence-based, results-driven domestic abuse programs that draw on data collected from hospitals, police, medical examiners, and other sources.
Approximately one-third of women in Latin America and the Caribbean report that they have been victims of sexual, physical, or psychological violence inflicted by domestic partners, according to survey data collected by PAHO. In some countries, the rates are higher. In Bolivia, for example, 53% of women say they have experienced physical violence, and 12% have been victims of sexual violence. In Peru, 42% report being victims of physical violence and 10%, sexual violence.
The rate of violence inflicted by sexual partners is between 29% and 52% in Latin America and the Caribbean. And, domestic violence is more common in the Americas than in other regions of the world. As the World Health Organization states in its World report on violence and health, “violence is often predictable and preventable.”
The Pan American Health and Education Foundation (http://www.pahef.org/) is a philanthropic organization working to combat disease, lengthen life, improve health care services, foster health research, and enhance the capacities of health care workers, primarily in the Americas, through grant-making and direct program implementation. The foundation works to promote philanthropy as a core social value. It enjoys a unique relationship with the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization, and shares their vision of Health for All.