Press Releases
PAHEF Works to Prevent Violence against Women
WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2008—On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF) is proud of the impact of its Global Violence Prevention project. The project has advanced awareness within the global health community that violence is preventable.
As part of the project’s case study series Violence Prevention: The Investment that Saves Lives, Edward Kadunc, PAHEF Executive Director, notes, “Three years after the adoption of a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol after 11:00 p.m. homicides fell by 44% and assaults against women decreased by 56% in the city of Diadema, Brazil.” Kadunc says that “This proves that violence is preventable.”
In 2008 Global Violence Prevention sponsored a meeting of stakeholders in evidence-based violence prevention at the Fetzer Institute in June. A policy brief Using Science to Prevent Violence resulted from this meeting.
Through a PAHEF grant, Research!America published and will widely distribute a fact sheet about global violence along with its newsletter. This fact sheet was part of a series called Investment in Research Saves Lives and Money. One of the highlights in the fact sheet is that five years after the US passed the Violence against Women Act, $14.8 billion was saved on health care, police response, lost productivity, and death compared to $1.6 billion invested in initiatives to prevent violence against women during the same period.
The Pan American Health and Education Foundation is a US-based nonprofit organization working to combat disease, lengthen life, improve health care services, foster health research, and enhance the capacities of health care workers in the Americas through grant-making and direct program implementation. As an independent organization, PAHEF supports the Pan American Health Organization’s vision of Health for All.
To learn more about the Global Violence Prevention project and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation, please visit pahef.org.
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