The most vulnerable population of children and adolescents suffer daily a series of violations of their most basic rights. Almost every day the media report infanticides and sexual assaults, and with the passage of time became frequent facts in society, but what to do to stop it, in this area arises the initiative of Ipas Bolivia to inform and prevent through a campaign on social networks.
In this context, the organization cites data from the Public Ministry as of 2023, in which it is estimated that every day at least 9 children and adolescents are victims of sexual aggression in Bolivia, of the cases that are reported, but of those that are not, they are simply forgotten and go unpunished. “Comprehensive sexuality education is essential for today’s children, it helps them prevent violence and early pregnancies.
It will also address issues such as hormonal changes, healthy affective relationships and consent. For this reason, the idea of sharing this information with the tools and language used with them on a daily basis was born,” said Ipas’s Communication Coordinator, Cecilia Terrazas.
The campaign called “Sin peros en la lengua” will be developed based on 4 axes: comprehensive sexuality education, sexual violence, early pregnancy and legal termination of pregnancy. The campaign started this month and will last until 2024. The messages will reach the population through digital posts, activations, influencers and videos on social networks: TikTok, Instagram, among others.
The content will be distributed by young content creators from all over the country, the same ones who are interested in promoting debate and reflection on these issues,” Terrazas emphasized.According to Ipas, with data collected by Serecí between 2015 and 2023, 3,652 marriages of adolescents, whose ages are between 15 and 17 years old, were registered. In addition to the cases reported by the Ministry of Education that in the last 10 years reached 800 cases of violence against children in schools.
Violence affects a large part of the young population, but also the elderly. Despite the laws prohibiting this action, the situation continues, and the punishments by the justice system do not materialize either, it is observed, of the gang rapes, no one is sentenced with exemplary penalties, but they are released and the victim is exposed in public. Experts on this issue identified some problems in punishing those responsible for these actions, such as lack of coordination, as well as poor preparation of the administrators of justice.