Violence In Young Children's Lives

I know a woman who experienced violence in her childhood, she has remember very little about her childhood until recently. She is beginning to get little snippets of memory of the age of 4 being molested by her stepfather. She has had to confirm these little memories with family members because she wasn’t sure if they were dreams. She is seeing a therapist and realizes she had lived in fear from the age of 4 until 6 or 7 when her Stepfather left, by bringing these memories back up she can heal.

I am interested in Peru since my son and his wife live there. Peru is afflicted with poverty, in 2008 45% of the total population lives in poverty, of that 60% are children ages 0-5. Now the poverty rate has dropped to 30%. Peru has the fastest growing economy; they have made great advances in keeping the infant mortality rate down by introducing more prenatal information and health services for people living in rural areas. Unfortunately there are still a high rate of chronic child malnutrition and a high incidence of family violence. Malnutrition takes its toll on children development; Peru is attempting to get as many children as possible in preschool where they will receive food and parents receive education as well as the children.

My son told me that when he visits the rural areas he feels as though he has gone back in time 100 years, there is more inequality now because some areas are doing well and other conditions have not changed.

Unicef (2008) Situation of Children in Peru, Executive Summery. Retrieved September 29, 2012 at

http://www.unicef.org/peru/spanish/Folleto_ing_correc_1.pdf

Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times March 30 (2012). Peru’s Poverty Rate Drops to 30.8 Percent.

http://www.peruviantimes.com/30/perus-poverty-rate-drops-to-30-8-percent-inei/15436/