On the second week of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, LAB and King’s College London release the second episode of our new podcast, Women Resisting Violence, in which women share their experiences of supporting each other and transforming their communities.
Located in one of the largest favela complexes in Brazil, Rio’s Casa Das Mulheres is a haven for those leaving abusive relationships, in an area where the police refuse to intervene. It’s also been a lifeline for the community during Covid – when many favela residents lost their jobs – providing work and distributing food to starving families as well as dealing with a huge rise in domestic violence.
In the second episode of Women Resisting Violence, ‘Rio’s Trailblazing Women’s House’, we hear from the founder of the Women’s House, Eliana Sousa Silva, and her colleagues from the NGO Networks of Maré, about the struggles the women of Maré face, and how they’ve adapted to help each other and transform their neighbourhood, in the face of government neglect.
You can listen to the episode here, or on major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also listen in Portuguese, or download the Spanish transcript.
According to Eliana, “the Women’s House is a recognition of how fundamental women are to social change.”
The podcast echoes this sentiment, by foregrounding women’s experiences and feeding these back at a policy level in 2022 through a roundtable discussion with activists like Eliana, and global VAWG policymakers.
Women Resisting Violence ultimately hopes to influence policy around gender-based violence and highlight the voices and lessons of those working on the frontlines of their communities. We’d be grateful if you could help us achieve this by leaving a review and sharing the podcast with friends, family and colleagues.
Join the conversation on social media, using the hashtag #WomenResistingViolence.
Women Resisting Violence is a co-production between Latin America Bureau and King’s College London, drawing on research from Cathy McIlwaine and Jelke Boesten. The podcast is produced and written by Louise Morris and presented by Renata Peppl. Funded by the ESRC Impact and Acceleration Account held at KCL*.
Listen to all the episodes here:
*Funded by the ESRC Impact and Acceleration Account held at KCL. The research conducted in Rio de Janeiro is funded by the ESRC and Newton Fund under grant ES/N013247/1 and by the British Academy and the Global Challenges Research Fund under grant HDV190030.