Invisible victims: How Colombia plans to support kids orphaned by femicide
Bogota, Colombia – The news made her breath catch in her throat. There, on her Facebook feed, was a post with an image of her mother's ex-boyfriend.
The caption announced a femicide: the intentional murder of a woman because of her gender.
Jennyfer Ramirez was only 17 years old at the time, a high-school student and the eldest of three siblings. She had been waiting at her uncle's house, where her mother, 33-year-old Leidy Navarrete, was expected to arrive.
It was December 23, 2022. Only two days remained before the Christmas holiday.
But as Ramirez read the Facebook post, she realised her mother would never come. Navarrete was the victim referenced in the caption. Her ex, Andres Castro, had forced his way into her apartment in southern Bogota that morning and strangled her to death before she could leave for work.
Ramirez felt like she could no longer breathe. Overwhelmed with the shock, she fainted.
'It was always the four of us together, my mother and the three of us," said Ramirez, now 19. "From one moment to another, everything changed."
Ramirez, her brother and her baby sister are what domestic violence advocates consider the 'invisible victims' of femicide: children who are left without a mother or loved one upon whom they rely.
Such murders can often leave kids orphaned without any parents at all, particularly when the perpetrator is a father or guardian.
But new legislation passed in Colombia's Congress seeks to offer state support to the child survivors of femicide, like Ramirez and her siblings.
The bill is part of a growing trend of legislation in Latin America that provides compensation and funds for mental health services to children struggling with the aftermath of gender-based violence.
'It recognizes that, in the process of femicide, the mother isn't the only victim," said Representative Carolina Giraldo, who helped draft the bill. "There are indirect victims as well."
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