CEO & FounderA Breeze of Hope
Brisa De Angulo, J.D., M.A., is CEO and Founder of A Breeze of Hope Foundation, which operates Bolivia’s first specialized center providing trans-disciplinary legal, social, and psychological services to child survivors of sexual violence. Brisa--a survivor of childhood sexual violence--is a pioneer in her field, having successfully implemented for 15 years a child-directed service model that focuses on access to justice, personal healing, relational healing, political participation, economic independence, and education. Brisa has used her many years of field experience to refine her model and share best practices with advocates throughout her region. Since 2004, Brisa’s center has (1) provided free direct services to over 2,000 child survivors and their supportive family members. (2) maintained a 95% conviction rate in the hundreds of criminal trails it has managed, and (3) educated over 120,000 people (including government officials) in sexual violence prevention and best practices.
Brisa is also a powerful advocate before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Brisa has presented several thematic hearings before the IACHR—in 2012, 2017, and 2019—addressing systematic violations of adolescent sexual violence survivors’ human rights. The first hearing in 2012 successfully pressured the Bolivian government to repeal is rape marriage law, a provision pardoning sexual aggressors of their crimes if they married their victims. Brisa’s sustained efforts are reshaping Bolivia’s justice system and improving its treatment of child survivors of sexual violence.
Brisa has co-authored 12 books on sexual violence and childhood development. She has also conducted landmark research on the dynamics and prevalence of sexual violence in Bolivia.