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• Check out UNIFEM’s portal on women, peace, and security
Help women rebuild their lives after conflict.
• Mobilize Women to Change their Lives
 Find out about Women for Women International's work to help women survivors of war become self-sufficient and active participants in their communities.
STATISTICS:
•In El Salvador, women comprised up to thirty percent of armed combatants.
•Women are the primary victims of war.
War-Ravaged Women
Morgana Vargas Llosa
PeruGALLERYCONVERSATION
One of the things that struck me most about the war was realizing how women played an even more sacrificial role.

In a context of violence, the women of Kosovo, and of many other war-ravaged places, not only need to protect themselves from violence, but also need to look after their families, their children, the people they love. While they run from the bombs into the refugee camps, they maintain their domestic role and take care of their families, even in the worst of moments. One can see the pain in their faces, a more intense pain, because they don’t just suffer for themselves. This is one of the realities that I try to reflect in my photographs.

In countries where we live in peace, we enjoy more equality and liberty. But maybe, the challenges of today's life, individual, competitive - deprive us of this chance of suffering for others, which is one of the thousand faces (some of them terrible) of love. And we have a lot of personal conflicts to solve. It is a difficult task to put the two worlds together: family and individual realization, since nowadays these don't go hand in hand.
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Jordan Whetzel (United States)
You can see the feer and frustration on their faces. These women have such inner strength to deal with these situation on a daily bases. The love that these women and families have for each other is so strong. During war time women suffer having to take on a role of mother and care giver, and soider. Violence against women duing war time is evedent. Violation against womens rights needs to end.
Laura Rea (United States)
I think that this is a very valid issue. The strength of women across the globe is immense. Women have to struggle on a daily basis to be in many places at once. These women who are in this daily struggle of survival and being caregivers have amazing inner strength. The inequalities between the sexes are always evident when it comes to war. These women suffer for all humans.
Jennifer Helmer (United States)
Woman can be really strong people. Taking on the dual roles of a nurturing caregiver as well as a soldier in the fight against the cycle of violence towards women. Gender inequality leads to violence towards women and violence towards women is a widespread universal violation of human rights that needs to be stopped. Every woman should have the right to a life of human dignity and safety.
Deepanjali Pandey (Singapore)
I visited Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam recently, and felt a lot of what you have described in your story. The scars of war are the most telling on the women and families. Innocent children, guilty pleasures, survival of the fittest and annihilation of hope are tribute that any war leaves on the survivors.
 
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