Tabata Varenka, 9 years old, woke up one day in her home in the municipality of Ecatepec, State of Mexico, with the desire to donate her hair to children suffering from cancer, which she observes when she goes to the clinic for rehabilitation, always accompanied by her grandmother María del Rosario Morales Ramírez, the little girl’s current guardian. The minor suffered beatings by her stepfather, abandonment by her mother and serious injuries when she was 3 years old at the hands of her great-aunt, Lucía Santa Morales Ramírez, who now faces a 12-year prison sentence.
The girl’s attacks brought her to the emergency room of the General Hospital of Axapusco, in the State of Mexico. The diagnosis: malnutrition, severe head trauma and cerebral infarction in the left hemisphere. Against all odds, Tabata survived and continues to face the consequences of the violence he suffered. The Voces de la Ausencia collective welcomed them and provided legal and medical support throughout this process. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), seven out of ten women over the age of 15 in Mexico have been victims of sexist violence.
