What if one third of your country’s population suffered from avian flu? Or from hepatitis B? Wouldn’t you expect your government to jump into action over an epidemic of those proportions, to call for an urgent national or global response and universal screening to make sure those who are suffering get the care they need?But we don’t see that kind of action in the case of violence against women and girls.

Worldwide, about 30 percent of all women have at some point experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of intimate partners. Seven percent of women have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner. And globally, as many as 38 percent of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners.

Continue reading this piece at Devex, where it is part of the She Builds campaign.

Related items:

• In Tanzania, Health Workers Stand Up for Victims of Violence
• SASA!, a successful gender-based violence activism program