"Healthy, Free, and Independent:" In El Salvador, a woman transforms her pain into activism

Dorys Yessenia Reyna, 41 years old, is a high school teacher, mother, entrepreneur and a religious leader. She’s committed to supporting women and girls who face violence in their lives and homes.  

Sadly, she has her own experience in this area.  

“I began to experience violence from the age of 7,” says Yessenia. Subjected to sexual abuse and maltreatment, she was shy and insecure as a child. When she turned 17, shortly after her first pregnancy, her partner at the time started beating and humiliating her. In time, the attacks became constant. 

In El Salvador, 1 in 6 women has suffered violence in her life, according to goverment data from 2019.  

“Every time I get the chance, I tell women not to get used to a life of abuse or discrimination,” says Yessenia. “God’s plan is not that we live in submission.” 

A crisis hits 

In 2012, Yessenia faced one of the biggest crises in her life, dealing with anxiety, severe depression and suicide attempts after separating from her partner, who then took the children and made a home with someone else.  

Yessenia approached Iglesia Del Camino, a church that offered hope in difficult times. Since then she has worked on her own personal healing, getting involved in women's groups, discipleship, and programs in mental health.  

“For years I have been breaking down barriers in my mind, meeting different people full of love and compassion,” says Yessenia. As examples she cites her mentor Zuleyma Aguilar, who “has never judged or condemned me, she has pushed me to grow,” and her church pastors Rosario and Carlos Navas, who “have made me reach for the best of myself.”  

“Each step has led me to where I am now." Asked to describe herself now, she says: “Healthy, free and independent.” 

A turning point  

In February of last year, Yessenia attended an event organized by Spotlight—an initiative of the UN and the European Union to end violence against women and girls. The event brought together scholars, pastors, community leaders and faith-based organizations in a national effort to against feminicidal violence and the pregnancies in girls and adolescents. 

There followed a five-month training process that gave churches and faith-based organizations the tools to address these issues, organized by the Evangelical University of El Salvador in coordination with ACT Alianza and the Spotlight Initiative. A total of 360 people took part. 

For Yessenia, one of the most valuable lessons of the training was learning to recognize all the forms of violence against herself and other women. 

“I have come to become aware of so much violence that I experienced,” she says. “At the time, I could not even categorize it as violence, I was so damanged and I had no information.” 

Yessenia herself, for example, had endured what is known as “vicarious or indirect violence”—harming the victim through her children, animals or precious people. She also experienced “economic violence”—the theft of money and the restriction of economic resources. 

Learning the forms of violence is a step to ending it. 

Another valuable experience from the training is how empowered she felt in learning about national and international agreements on violence against women. These helped her connect her own efforts with those of activists and governments and others around the world.  

A troubling trend 

During the period of confinement due to COVID-19, violence against women in El Salvador shot up by 70%. Out of every ten women victims of violence, just two sought information or help, and not even one in ten reported the violence, according to a survey backed by the Spotlight Initiative. 

Yessenia proposed what she called the Safe Shelter Project to other leaders of her congregation, and the pastors immediately agreed. Coordinated by Yessenia, Safe Shelter focuses on domestic violence. She now has a chance to put the lessons of the Spotlight training into practice.   

Eight people work on the project and together they serve 50-60 families with counseling on gender violence. “The vision,” says Yessenia, “is that the Safe Shelter Project reaches the 14 branches of the Iglesia del Camino nationwide.” 

Changing roles for churches 

“Many women have been mistreated from the pulpits by misinterpretations of the Bible by leaders and pastors who have appropriated texts to make women feel less,” she says.  

For example, she cites the examples of First Corinthians, “Your women should be silent in the churches” and First Timothy, “I do not allow the woman to teach or to exercise authority over the man, but for her to remain silent.”  

For Yessenia, some churches might use such texts to perpetuate violence and discrimination against women. “But today,” she says, “we are raising our voices for those women who were once subdued and silent.”  

Religious institutions can be important allies in this work, she says, by educating themselves and fostering a culture of zero tolerence for violence against women and girls. Some churches are on board, as illustrated by their participation in the UN’s Spotlight initiative.  

The biblical figure of Esther inspires Yessenia. Esther was a “radical woman in making decisions,” with the “character and determination one needs as a woman, when we have a clear mission.”  

Yessenia’s mission is clear: to help end the violence. “I am always looking for things to read and ways to learn more about this issue,” she says. “That is the reason for getting up every day.” 

Yessenia hopes for women to be respected in Salvadoran society and for equality to realized. “That one day I will no longer read on the news that there is an abused girl or a murdered woman, but that women live fully and free, that we no longer live full of insecurities and fears.”  

The Spotlight Initiative is a UN global partnership promoted by the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate violence against women and girls. In El Salvador, the initiative is implemented jointly by UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP in alliance with civil society organizations and under the leadership of national and local governments.  Story was written by Blanca Iris Peña, Iniciativa Spotlight El Salvador. Editorial support by Paul VanDeCarr, Development Coordination Office. To learn more about the United Nations' work in El Salvador, please visit: ElSalvador.UN.org. To learn more about the results of our work in this area and beyond, please visit the UNSDG Chair Report on DCO.