“The locusts of everyday violence have been allowed to swarm unabated in the developing world. And they are laying waste to the hope of the poor.” –The Locust Effect
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Through conversations with our many great writers and in sifting through our thousands of articles here at The Good Men Project, one thing about violence has been made particularly clear: our world’s poorest people are especially vulnerable to it. For myriad reasons they are often without a voice and, in the end, often without justice.
Our estimates are more accurate than ever, and they tell us that perhaps 30 million children, women and men are held as forced labor slaves.
Then there’s this: 1 in 5 women (PDF from CDC) will be a victim of rape or attempted rape and 1 in 6 men have experienced unwanted or abusive sexual experiences before age 18. Sexual violence, of course, makes everyday activities like going to school, gathering water, using a communal restroom or taking public transport all the more dangerous. Additional, poverty experts agree that the world’s poorest 4 billion people often live in places where their justice systems don’t or can’t protect them from these kinds of “everyday violence.”
Our friends at International Justice Mission just put together this powerful 3-minute video that shows what the world is up against as we work together to help our poorest neighbors.
For deeper insights into the links between violence and poverty check out The Locust Effect by Victor Boutros and IJM’s president Gary A. Haugen, which released today:
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–Photo: Dhobi Ghat/Yohan Wadia/Flickr