In Colombia, if you are a woman and you are also displaced, this means you have to cope with poverty, violence and exclusion. These are the findings of a recent survey carried out by the Profamilia Association. The situation outlined by this study is alarming because in addition to the woman being expelled from her home, she has to cope with the impossibility of finding a job, health problems and very often the hell of domestic violence.

According to the report, less than 40% of displaced women have been able to find work; although 90% have received some type of humanitarian aid from the State or an NGO, only 5% have acquired work skills and scarcely 1%have been able to get help while working. 40% of displaced women do not have access to any type of social welfare.

Regarding sexual health, one third of displaced teenagers are pregnant or have already had babies, while by the age of 19 years, 63% of women have already had at least one child. It is not surprising to learn that 3 in 10 of the displaced women do not use any form of contraception and that 37% do not consider smear tests to be necessary As well, each displaced women has, on average, two children above the national average. Given these facts, it is clear that it is absolutely vital to support reproductive and sexual health programmes for displaced women, regarding both the provision and information of services.

Another alarming aspect brought to our attention is that of violence. Their partners have subjected 44% of displaced women to violence, and 18% of these suffered attacks when pregnant. As well, another 18%have been victims of sexual violence, while in the case of 80% of violent attacks against these women, they neither lodged a complaint or took proceedings.

In conclusion, the particular situation in which women caught up in this tragedy of displacement is the added condition of exclusion that is now seen as a new form of poverty. The most worrying is that these findings reveal this situation at a time when there is a public debate about the essential care by the State of displaced persons, in accordance with judgement T-025 in the Supreme Court. Last week, the Attorney General recalled the ongoing negligence of the State regarding measures to protect the displaced in the country and described the progress of action taken as "slow and difficult".

According to the Attorney General, the sum of 1.3 billion pesos given by the government in 2005 and 2006 is not sufficient to deal with the needs of the displaced. Likewise, he insisted that more realistic and serious indicators be developed as well as a desired improvement in programmes for displaced people of Afro-Colombian, native or peasant origins that are most at risk.

It is not easy to develop an integrated assistance policy for displaced people if we cannot even agree on how many there are or where they come from. While the National Government states that violence has displaced 1,706,236 persons to date, the CODHES and the Conference of Bishops estimates that there are approx 3 million victims caught up in this situation. In any case, it is impossible to ignore the extraordinary numbers of displaced people in the country.

The conclusion is obvious; regarding both the daily life of displaced women and the design of a structure to implement public welfare policies for them, Uribe's government has a lot to do. Action must be taken urgently so that Colombia ceases to have the dubious distinction of being one of the countries in the world with the highest number of displaced persons.