Teaching youth in Huánuco, Peru, churches and schools about God's design for sexuality was the aim of a 2000 project of Lima-based evangelical legal aid and human rights group Peace and Hope Association. But when streams of girls came forward after meetings saying they had been raped, Peace and Hope workers knew the Huánuco project must expand to defend them.
So Peace and Hope began in 2002 networking with evangelical pastors in this city tucked in a valley in Peru's central Andes to raise police and evangelical awareness of the problem, and do something about it.
Rape is an epidemic in this city of 70,000 in Peru's poorest state and nestled in a remote Andean valley. An estimated 20 Huánuco girls, typically between ages 6 and 14, are rape victims each week. One in 40 women there get raped annually. Many rapes go unreported because family members commit them. Reported rapes rarely lead to prosecution. Recent research published by New York University shows that 90 percent of girls in Peru aged 12-16 who give birth say they were raped. It appears to be part of a national tendency to perpetrate violence against women. The United Nations reports that 70 percent of all crimes reported to the police in Peru involve wife beating.
Peace and Hope lawyer José Regalado said Peru's evangelicals are conservative on social problems. And when abused girls and their families approached authorities for help, police typically blamed the victim.
"One of the problems is [the police] don't see rape as a bad thing," lawyer Jaime Farrant of the Washington-based evangelical International Justice Mission (IJM) said. "For them, rape is like a traffic violation. It's not a high priority for them." IJM funds some of Peace and Hope's work and provides legal counsel, conducts workshops, and sends its investigators to Peru to work on special cases.
Since 2002, Peace and Hope has brought 11 alleged Huánuco rapists to trial. Three have been convicted and have received sentences ranging from seven to 35 years. Eight other rape trials are under way. Thirty other cases are open but have not come to trial. The process can take two years. In 2002 IJM signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Interior to train Huánuco's police department, along with Peace and Hope. IJM has already held three police workshops on rape.
In April IJM brought Regalado and three Peruvian judicial and law enforcement officials to Chicago for training with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas, and State Senator Peter Roskam.
Still, the church is the primary means in fighting rape, IJM says. "Peace and Hope believes the church is the greatest ally" in combating this problem by changing societal attitudes and offering assistance, Regalado said. As the church network expands and more citizens learn of Peace and Hope's services, which it offers pro-bono, attitudes are changing, children are receiving help, and rapists are being brought to justice. Peace and Hope seeks to expand Huánuco's program to the rest of Peru.
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Each had unique translation philosophies, diction preferences, and intended audiences in mind, frameworks that informed how they approached their all-consuming work.简体中文繁體中文
