Women uprooted from homes in Columbia need proper aid, says report

Thousands of homeless women and girls many of whom are victims of sexual violence and abuse, are not getting the help they need, says aid agency Refugees International.Displaced women and their families are not getting the health care, education, housing, job opportunities and training that is their legal right, the country’s constitutional court agreed last year. But still, little progress has been made, the agency raid in a report. "The response has been so far very disappointing," said Melanie Teff, an advocate at Refugees International, who has just come back from a three-week fact-finding trip to the South American country.

Every year, one in 10 Colombians, about 250,000 people, are uprooted because of violence from Colombia's armed conflict, according to Refugees International. People flee their homes to escape crossfire between guerrilla groups fighting against government troops for territorial control in countryside and jungle areas. Women and children account for about 80 per cent of the country's estimated 3.2 million people forced out of their homes and nearly half of Columbia’s displaced households are headed by women. But government aid to displaced people is not targeting women, found the US-based aid organisation’s report out earlier this week. "Significant steps are still required to ensure that the humanitarian response takes the specific needs of women into account," the report said.

Sexual violence, including rape, is one factor forcing women and children to leave their homes, and it is being used as a strategy in Colombia's decades-long conflict. The threat of armed groups seizing children to train as soldiers is another leading cause of people fleeing their homes. "Armed groups are also using sexual violence and forced recruitment as tactics in the conflict," the report said."Threats of sexual violence are a major factor leading families with adolescent girls to flee."

In a 2007 study across four cities conducted by the Colombian Ombudsman Office - the national agency charged with overseeing civil and human rights - 18 percent of IDP women cited sexual violence as a direct cause of displacement.  All armed groups in Colombia's conflict, including leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), right-wing paramilitaries and government forces have been known to carry out acts of sexual violence. "Every side of the conflict is taking part in sexual abuse. We did hear cases of rape by government soldiers," said Teff. Refugees International said there was an 'urgent need' to improve protection programmes and provide psychological support for survivors of sexual violence.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children