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Around the world, as many as one in three women have been beaten at the hands of someone that they know.

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This, according to the United Nations Population Fund. But one country is fighting back.

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A day like any other.

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A scene of domestic violence that could be taking place anytime, anywhere.

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Here in Honduras, it's said that a woman is killed at the hands of her partner every 20 days.

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Officials estimate that one out of seven women are victims of physical abuse.

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And many more cases go unreported.

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Maria Amalia Reyes was barely 20 years old when she married her first husband.

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He was a policeman. He was part of a notorious group here in the capital, Cobras.

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This was a man who was trained to be extremely tough. And what he learned at work, he would practice on me.

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The beatings continued year after year, often in front of her young children.

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He drank too much. He drank liquor. He beat me savagely.

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He would put his gun inside my mouth and he would tell me,

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if you yell, I'll kill you and I'll leave your brain splattered on the walls.

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At that point, there was little protection for Maria Amalia.

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Domestic violence was not prosecuted in the country until a law aimed at protecting women was finally passed in 1998.

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But having a law is one thing. Enforcing it is another, says former Minister for Security Oscar Alvarez.

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In Latin America, the man has always been the dominant figure.

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We had to change the situation because the police, when a woman comes to ask for help,

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many times officers don't understand. And many times they even say,

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she must have done something to deserve the beating.

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So just how do you change such entrenched attitudes?

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By training the police to think differently, with years of classroom training on gender discrimination.

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And by learning how to handle victims of domestic violence, as well as aggressors.

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Today, police academies of Honduras graduate 1,400 officers each year, and many are women.

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Doris Cortes is the country's first police officer with a master's degree in gender and education.

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It's essential, she says, that victims like Maria Amalia trust their complaints will be handled quickly.

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Now we are available on immediate notice to anyone who calls.

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A new telephone hotline now allows for anonymous reports of domestic abuse to be referred immediately to the police dispatcher.

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Also essential, she says, is that law enforcement and victims themselves

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understand that domestic violence is not only about beatings.

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Psychological violence, which is yelling, humiliations,

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when the woman is degraded until she is drained of her independence,

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of her ability to make decisions for herself, instead of having the man make all the decisions for her.

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All of these changes, in the system and in attitudes,

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made it easier for Maria Amalia to ask for help the second time around.

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Later, I got married again, the same.

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He deals with me as if I were an animal. He says terrible things to me.

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He tells me I'm useless, I'm a piece of trash.

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He tells me so many things I can't even tell you.

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So I decided to report him to the police.

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But while reporting and response have become easier and quicker, says Cortes,

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there's another kind of abuse that for many women remains taboo.

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Sexual violence, that's when the woman doesn't want to have relations,

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but is forced to, normally by the husband.

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That is considered a type of violence.

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It's a kind of humiliation that this woman, Tirza Hernandez,

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a devoted mother, knows only too well.

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The violence against me lasted about 40 years.

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If I didn't please him in some way, it would take away economic support.

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It's embarrassing to say, but also sexually.

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It was a daily obligation. There was no pleasure, no mutual consent.

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If I didn't please him, the problems would start over again.

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For Tirza, it's not just about money.

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For Tirza, going to the authorities to get a restraining order was not enough.

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Separated from her abusive husband, she lost her income, her home,

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and her two sons, who now live in a shelter.

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Her case, argues Cortes, shows how victims often need even more

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than effective policing and injunctions from the court.

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They need a safety net.

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In a society where violence among family members has left deep scars,

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Maria Amalia is trying to take control of her own destiny

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and to guarantee a better future for her pregnant daughter

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by building a self-help group for women.

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I can say that the situation for women in Honduras is difficult,

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extremely difficult.

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Because of the poverty we live in, we just don't have many opportunities.

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Our history is based in the macho culture of the men

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and the sacrifice of us, women.

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Our struggle is about all just for survival in this country, Honduras.

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The work she is doing, and programs like police training, are only a small start.

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But to change this painful history, you have to begin somewhere.

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Some months ago, the new government of Honduras outlawed not only

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domestic violence, but all forms of violence against women.