Argentine Program Breaks the Circle of Domestic Violence

March 5, 2008—"A woman should spend all day at home, cooking, cleaning, and looking after the kids. She should put up with domestic violence for the sake of her children. And she should keep any questions she has about family planning to herself."

These are common, unquestioned assumptions among poor and vulnerable women in Argentina and elsewhere in the world.

But such thinking keeps women isolated and vulnerable. It also contributes to keeping them and their families poor.

In 2000 the Argentine government started a program to help vulnerable poor families deal with domestic violence against women and children.

"You think: you put up with it for your children. My daughter was two months old. I was beaten every day for seven months," explained Marcela, a young victim of domestic violence in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina.

The project, called Family Strengthening and Social Capital Promotion Project (PROFAM), reached out to vulnerable families, both women and men. It focused on improving gender relations and their impact on the family. One of the key issues the program raised was awareness of domestic violence and how to deal with it. Both men and women said the program helped them understand the "circle of violence" and how to avoid falling into it. Beneficiaries subsequently created local networks to counsel and take action against cases of domestic violence.

"I realize that what I was doing was wrong," said Orlando from Cordoba, who went through the program. "Now, I have an 8-year-old boy and sometimes he pushes me to the limit and my blood boils, but I stay calm. I don't hit him anymore; I try to talk to him and the other boys. I have changed."

More than 49,000 people, both women and men, from across Argentina benefited from the program.

Helping the Country During a Crisis

The program became especially important during the country's severe economic crisis in 2001–2003 when millions of people lost their jobs and money and many left the country.

"With many men—the traditional breadwinners—out of work, women and youth had to enter the labor force, and this generated an increase in family conflicts and domestic violence," said Josefina Stubbs, World Bank task manager for the project.

Connecting Women

Participants learned how to work as a group and help each other. The program helped women connect with one another and raise their awareness to the importance of sharing their concerns with others. As a result, many female participants established local women associations.

Training was a key component. It included both learning job skills such as bakery, bricklaying, or market gardening, and in areas such as reproductive health, parental responsibility, rights and citizenship, and child welfare.

The program also helped women raise their self-esteem.

Angela is a young mother from the province of Tucuman who took part in training on producing leather goods. "The workshop changed me a lot … because I didn't only learn how to work with leather. This workshop gave me back my dignity as a woman," she said.

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