no repeat offenders
When you look back on your relationship, Sánchez admits that there was “rudeness” from both sides, referring to the verbal violence.
He and his ex-partner were separated. One day he saw her go out with another man and the assault for which he was tried occurred.
“I got very angry, I got carried away by rage, but I’m over that”he relates sadly.
Roberto Moncayo, director of the “Tres Manuelas” center -where the club operates-, guides breathing and stretching exercises before beginning the three-hour sessions.
At the end of the relaxation, attendees between the ages of 30 and 60 let out a resounding “aaah!” and they begin to talk about the topic of the day: defects, virtues and fears.
On a piece of paper they write down their fear of “failure”, “loneliness”, “discrimination” and “losing” their children. They also write about his “bad temper,” “lack of control,” and “impatience.”
When there is no self-control of our emotions we can generate more violence
In the group there are from office workers to workers. “The control of emotions is not linked to educational level or socioeconomic level. This happens to someone who has an (academic) degree as well as someone who does not,” Moncayo told AFP.
Since it began operating in 2010, in an old house in the historic center of Quito, the club has served 545 men to help them leave the cycle of violence. So far there have been no repeat offenders.
In the group “we force ourselves to think about how we are exercising our role as men within the family, work and social spheres” and we become “aware” that “when there is no self-control of our emotions we can generate more violence,” explains Moncayo.
In 2020, the ECU911 Security Service received some 113,400 calls for domestic violence. That number rose to 117,400 in 2021.