Fighting against gender-based violence

      No Lo Callemos !   (we won’t shut up about it)

When Miriam, at the end of 2021, went to school to have her notebooks checked, she was sexually harassed by her mathematics teacher. When she went back to school at the beginning of 2022, she found out this happened to lots of girls.
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Miriam and 5 other girls organised, got a head teacher involved, a lawyer and even the press. Chaska became their base to meet and set up a campaign;
“No Lo Callemos”.
We made bracelets and brochures and Miriam started visiting classrooms at her school to educate the students about their rights.

They fought a relentless battle against the government and their school but in the end they won. 2,5 Years later the teacher is no longer teaching and has a restraining order for the school premises and the people involved in the case. He is at the moment awaiting trial.

When we asked our girls about the importance of Chaska for them, all agreed on 1 thing; Chaska is their safe space. Why? below an article of Amnesty International:

​Sexual and gender-based violence 
In 2023, the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations registered 142,182 cases of violence against women, girls and adolescents, a 7% increase on 2022. 
Of these, 28,991 were cases of sexual violence, of which 50% were against female adolescents aged between 12 and 17 years. 
Over the same period, the ministry registered 11,944 cases of rape – of which 7,757 (66%) were against children and adolescents. 

A national poll revealed that less than 30 percent of women report incidents of gender-based violence, indicating that the real figure is likely 4 x higher.
While gender-rights activists are working to implement more robust prevention measures, harsher sentencing, and meaningful education reform, they are confronting societal and institutional barriers that reflect a conservative stance toward women, violence, and reproductive health.

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