Stop Femicide!

Karen Smith Rotabi, PhD, LMSW, MPH is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been engaged in international development and advocacy work in Central America since the early 1990s, beginning as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Her recent research focus has been on intercountry adoption reform and human rights in Guatemala and around the world. As a process of that research, it became clear that violence against women in the context of poverty was a significant overarching issue in Guatemalan adoption fraud. Focusing on this larger issue, violence against women, was a catalyst for new advocacy work focused on the social and structural issues in the nation. Partnering with the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) was an obvious step to work towards change. This included contributions to the organizing of the August 2009 Violence Against Women delegation which documented the testimony of victims, survivors, and advocates to include human rights defenders and social workers in Guatemala. Rotabi developed this website in an attempt to document the social movement which is underway to end violence against women in Guatemala and globally. Part of this process has been focused on making connections, including social workers, domestic violence advocates, and students. In this process, a great team has emerged. This website is a compilation of the various work underway to advocate for the women of Guatemala to end violence against women and femicide.

Roselyn Costantino, PhD has participated on both the first GHRC delegation on this topic (Spring 2005) and the follow-up delegation in Summer 2009. She was one of the earliest scholars to begin to document the problem. Her voice is clear and her analysis of the underlying causes of the problem of violence against women and femicide is inclusive of the many elements. Costantino is Associate Professor at Penn State University, Altoona campus. Her expertise in women's issues, Latinas, and US Foreign policy has been an important voice in our organizing work on this issue.

Janett Forte, MSW, LCSW is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she serves as program director for the VCU Institute for Women’s Health (IWH).  She is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from VCU.  A leader in the area of gender-based violence, Forte has over twenty-two years experience in training, public policy, program development, evaluation, and systems change.  As a social worker and activist, she has committed her career to human rights and social justice. Under the umbrella of community engagement, she has been building a network of partnerships and initiatives linking the community and VCU. In the past year, she has been working to develop a new international women’s health component for IWH and created university working group including VCU Departments providing global health services/projects. She is currently a health consultant with the Highland Support Project which serves Mayan communities in Guatemala. She traveled to Costa Rica in 2008 and to Honduras and Guatemala in 2009 as part of university- community partnered service projects. She participated in the GHRC’s August 2009 violence against women delegation under the “ For the Women’s Right to Live” campaign.

Denise Gammonley, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.,  Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Central Florida is a John A. Hartford Foundation/Gerontological Society of America Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. As a scholar of teaching and learning an underlying theme of Dr. Gammonley’s work is promoting student understanding of human rights, cross-cultural engagement, and impacts of globalization on psychosocial well-being of women, older adults, and families. Her program development, research and evaluation portfolio includes projects (1) designing implementing, and analyzing community mental health intervention trials, (2) creating collaborative and interdisciplinary endeavors linking academic institutions with community health and social service providers in urban, rural, and global contexts; and (3) using mixed qualitative-quantitative and participatory engagement methods to analyze community  health promotion interventions.

Abida "Abby" Dini, MSW received a scholarship to participate in the delegation and her post-delegation work includes organizing to advocate for the labor rights of women who work for the banana plantations, a letter writing campaign supporting the community radio stations Congressional bill in Guatemala, and various information sharing sessions. In Abby's work as a women's advocate, she hopes to use her voice to educate and inform others of the very difficult circumstances of women in Guatemala. She has been instrumental in organizing policy advocacy activities in Capitol Hill.

Karen Smith Rotabi has been involved in Guatemala, in one way or another, for almost 20 years dating back to her first trip in the early 1990s. Here she visits with a Guatemalan family, learning about weaving and family traditions.

Roselyn Costantino photographed in the Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.

Janett Forte
 

Denise Gammonley photographed at the US Department of State, Washington, DC.

Abby Dini photographed during our delegation visit to Guatemala in August 2009