PhotoPhilanthropy

Ecuador has an exceptionally high rate of domestic violence among Latin American nations, with an estimated 46% of married or partnered women reported to have suffered psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse. The Centro de Equidad y Justicia (CEJ) is a one-stop center for vulnerable woman, providing comprehensive services including legal aid, medical care and counseling for women and children, and reintegration programs including training for employment. Its unique holistic approach and serves all sectors of society regardless of background or financial need.

Deeply engrained in the culture of a machista society and regarded as taboo, the problem knows no bounds, transcending race, background and socioeconomic status. This essay glimpses the lives of three abused women from very different worlds: an indigenous woman living in the outermost margins of society, whose 14-year-old son committed suicide by hanging himself in the room where she and her children were physically and sexually abused by her husband for years; a middle-class Colombian immigrant living in Quito with her abusive Ecuadorian husband, who stuck his fingernail through her eye in a fit of rage; and the wealthy wife of a high-profile and powerful banker, who would pass away after completion of this story. Scarred and emotionally exhausted, these women seem caught between lives of hopelessness and a chance for a better life. All have young children for whom they live; my work with CEJ seeks to capture their struggle to let go of dark worlds in order to move on.