Options available for domestic violence victims

Aug 14, 2013 News

By Rehanna Ramsay
In an effort to highlight the options readily available to individuals who may wish to flee abusive homes or relationships, this publication will continue to draw attention to the hard-working groups that function mainly on a platform of advocating against gender-based violence and domestic abuse.
Help and Shelter, for example, is a veritable safe house for persons who may experience different types of abuse, including those that suffer as a result of human trafficking. Victims can access first hand counseling, as well as food and temporary shelter, during their process of recovery and reintegration into society.
Help and Shelter was founded in 1995, to work against violence of all forms, by helping to create a society where attitudes towards violence and related practices have been transformed.
To date, the entity has rescued hundreds of victims, particularly women and children, who are victims of physical, sexual and domestic abuse.
Another initiative is the Women of Worth, (WOW) Scheme, which was launched in 2010. The project was inspired by the then Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand. The role of this programme is to strengthen and empower women.
It gives hundreds of women, especially single mothers, access to microcredit loans, financially equipping them with the essentials for their specified independent pursuits.
There is also Red Thread, an independent grassroots network of strong-willed women who have been proactive and intensely vocal in their campaign against many societal issues, particularly crimes committed against women and children.
This group defends the rights of females, increasingly focusing on using the structure of counting women’s unwaged and low-waged work to address the divisions of race and gender that keep the poorest women trapped in poverty and intolerable burdens of work.
And then there is the entity, Women Across Differences (WAD) which is not as well known but has assisted in the empowerment of women and young girls through access to social and economical resources since 1999.
WAD facilitates women’s individual and collective efforts in working together across the usual barriers of age, ethnicity, class, politics, religion and geographic location.
Lending her voice to the growing plague of gender-based violence is Ms Yvonne Stephenson, Head of the Documentation Centre within the Ministry of Human Services.
She revealed that based on research, some women prefer to stay with their partners but want the abuse to stop.
“Some women remain in the situation because of their children, while others, even though the option is provided, may not want to end the relationship altogether, they just want the violence to stop, and some because of pride may never seek help.”
Ms Stephenson explained that due to the various awareness campaigns against such crimes, society is more sensitized about domestic abuse.
“Owing to the various campaigns such as Stamp It Out… No more black and blue, this sort of thing is no longer a family secret, it is everybody’s business.”
Stephenson is also the editor of ‘Woman Powah’, a quarterly Magazine published under the Ministry of Human Services.

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Options available for domestic violence victims

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