From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERcome out all sick, but she was fat and big. She’s five now and she’snearly as big as me! Lots of mothers in my barrio lose their babies.Ursula thinks it was the guerrillas who killed her father, but she is notsure. In Colombia, death could come at the hands of the army, thepolice, drug gangs, paramilitary death squads, common criminals,guerrilla fighters, or street gangs. Colombia’s murder rate is one of thehighest in the world, more than nine times that of the USA.The threat of violence is commonplace for people living in poverty.In their homes, women often face the threat of violence at the hands ofhusbands and fathers, which is often condoned by society; violenceagainst children is even more widely accepted. The notion that childrenare individuals with rights, enshrined in international law since 1989under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has still topermeate many communities, leaving children the most invisible,powerless, and excluded members of society, at the mercy of parents,step-parents, and older siblings.Outside the home, the threat of violence is also ever present,especially for women and for young men, and is often symptomatic ofthe lack of an effective state. Deadly violent crime is closely associatedwith poverty and inequality. Every country with a high annual rate ofhomicide (more than ten murders per 100,000 people) is either amiddle- or low-income country, while most wealthy countries havelower homicide rates than the global average. The US murder rate, of5.7 per 100,000 in 2006, 126 is a fraction of that for sub-Saharan Africaat 17–20 per 100,000. Latin America and the Caribbean, although nowalmost free from armed conflicts, is the world’s most unequal regionand has the world’s highest murder rate at 25 per 100,000, risingto 61 in Colombia, where endemic violence and a 50-year-old conflictcreate an archetypal vicious circle. 127VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENViolence and the threat of violence constrain the hopes and choices ofwomen. They sap women’s energy, compromise their physical andmental health, and erode their self-esteem. The damage carries acumulative cost to society, since abused and injured women are lessable to work, care for their children, or become active citizens.274