With celebrations set to honor Woman?s Day on March 8, El Caribe and the Listin Diario carry reports today on intra-family violence and the pathos caused by the needless deaths of so many women. So far, police statistics show that conjugal violence has claimed the lives of 29 Dominican women so far this year.
El Caribe newspaper headlines that 500 children have been orphaned over the past three years. ?There are times when no one shows up to take care of those children, and others when there is an aunt or grandparents whose living conditions are worse than those of the parents,? Mercedes Lora, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Women told the newspaper. The effects of this will be felt in the future. ?Children will repeat as adults what they learned in their childhood,? warns Altagracia Valdez, of the Women Training program of the Ministry of Women.
?Policies to counteract violence have improved and there is a national concern for the well-being of women,? Elisa Sanchez Pujols, in charge of the Department for Children and Teenagers of the Attorney General?s Office told El Caribe. She highlighted the ratification of Laws 24-97 and 14-94 that provide legal frameworks for the protection of women and children.
The Listin Diario carries a five-page report on the dramatic story of what happens in the homes that are hit by family violence. According to the Listin, four of every five women killed leave as many as three children less than 10 years old. The Ministry of Women estimates that just last year, 200 children were orphaned by such violence. According to the Ministry, 65 percent of the women killed were between the ages of 16 and 35 years old, and in several of these cases the children actually witnessed the murder of their mother, the suicide of their father or step-father, or were themselves attacked and somehow escaped death.