Wanda Neal couldn’t take her husband’s jealousy and bad temper anymore, so she left him. Two weeks later, he showed up at the nursing home where she worked, carrying three guns through the halls as he hunted for her. Neal was working on a locked ward and survived the incident, but not before her husband had gunned down eight people in the nursing home, including a nurse and seven elderly residents.

Stories like this should spur us to action, says IntraHealth International’s Constance Newman. It’s an example of the kind of gender-based violence that affects everyone, but especially women and girls. Every day, it leads to a devastating loss of liberty, equality, and health. And in some cases, it leads to a loss of life.

At IntraHealth, our work of empowering health workers around the world intersects with gender violence more often than you might think. Health workers must be able to screen their patients for signs of violence and provide victims with the appropriate care and referrals. Health workers can be victims, at work or in their personal lives. And, in some cases, they can be perpetrators.

In honor of this year’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, the North Carolina-based Triangle Global Health Consortium ran a series of blog entries by local experts and activists on topics that span the globe.

Take a look: 

• The Power of Proverbs? | A list of sayings from around the world, compiled by Constance Newman of IntraHealth, makes violence against women sound perfectly normal.
• What Would You Do? | Tara Romano of Project Vox asks some tough questions about intimate-partner violence.
• Shame and Self-Worth in the Context of Domestic Violence in South Asian Culture | Staff members at Kiran, Inc. write that in some cultures, victims of domestic violence risk everything when they ask for help.
• Barriers Faced by Latino/a Victims of Domestic Violence | Lisi Martinez Lotz of the Compass Center for Women and Families explains why immigrants are especially vulnerable to domestic violence.
• Interpersonal Violence on College Campuses | One in five women will experience a sexual assault before she graduates, according to Jennifer Scott of North Carolina State University’s Women’s Center.
• “The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could” | A role in The Vagina Monologues helped Kei Alegría-Flores, a student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, come to terms with a violent family history.
• Act Globally and Locally: Gender-Based Violence in Central America and the Triangle | We can change gender norms, starting at home, according to Mary Mulhern Kinkead of the Iris Group.
• Guatemala’s “Triangle of Death” | In the rural highlands of Guatemala, pregnancy is very dangerous, says Erin Pfeiffer of Curamericas Global.
• Gender-Based Violence in Maternity Care | Maryce Ramsey of IntraHealth writes about why most Ethiopian women are hesitant to give birth at health facilities.
• Caring for Women in Nicaragua | Ipas staff members talk about the unusually high rates of adolescent pregnancy and maternal mortality in rural Guatemala, and how sexual violence is all too common in the region.
• Conflict, Militarism, and Gender Violence | Tara Romano of Project Vox discusses militarism and violence against women.
• 2012 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act | Tara Romano of Project Vox calls for action.
• From Raising Awareness to Ending Violence against Women | Constance Newman of IntraHealth wants to know what it will take to finally end violence against women.