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GWR plans to take issues affecting women to election candidates
At a recently held forum at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Guyanese Women Roundtable (GWR), highlighted a variety of issues affecting Guyanese society which the organisation plans to take to candidates contesting the upcoming May 11 elections.
GWR member, Roslyn Wade, explained that the organisation carried out a survey amongst 250 Guyanese women from all walks of life, and was able to identify top issues affecting the society. These issues include; violence against women, teenage pregnancy, poor health care system, poor police response, trafficking of women, unemployment, poor education, road accidents, drugs in communities, and a failing justice system.
Dr. Dawn Stewart
Wade lamented the little time and resources that GWR has, since it would only permit the organisation to address five of these issues prior to the May 11 polls. In identifying the top five issues, Wade said she felt a personal connection to them as a woman, since she is a survivor of domestic violence, which was identified as the top issue.
“When we take this information to the candidates at the forum, we want to hear what their responses would be.”
She continued, “domestic violence, we want to know how you intend to address all these cold cases…”
Wade then recalled an encounter she had with the police, which she acknowledged to be common police reaction to instances of domestic violence.
“I went to the police, and was told that it was a private matter, and “when y’all two done, come back to me”. And I never did go back to them. But thank God that I was able to get out of that situation with my ex-husband.”
She explained that women in violent relationships are often left to fend for themselves, because the ones who are supposed to protect them refuse to interfere. She went on to address what the organisation referred to as poor education system and unemployment (priorities number two and three), and posed various questions, about how the candidates intend to deal with the school dropout rate, and creating jobs for women over 30, and youths.
These were regarded as major issues, since even qualified persons are finding it hard to secure jobs. GWR plans to question candidates on how they intend to govern so that people can afford to pay rent, electricity, phone bill, water, and support their families.
Teenage pregnancy and what GWR judged to be poor healthcare system were identified as priorities four and five. Wade said that women in the society are concerned about the instances of maternal deaths, and the long wait at Accident & Emergency Unit of the main health institution amongst other things.
In a recent interview with Kaieteur News, GWR senior member Dr. Dawn Stewart assured that putting these issues to the candidates is not where the organisation’s vision ends.
“We plan on asking the leaders to address these issues that have been affecting women for the past 30 years, and then after elections we have an election campaign scorecard that we will use to keep abreast with whether or not the issues are being addressed… Then after a government is elected, we will have follow-up campaigns and meetings to ensure that these issues are being addressed. So it’s continuous, and it is going to help with the accountability and visibility of these issues that are occurring.”
Dr. Stewart added that the onus of ensuring that these prevailing issues in the society are adequately address rests solely on the people.
“We are the watchdogs, we are to hold them (government) accountable, we are supposed to be able to advocate for whatever it is that we want, while protecting the lives of all the people in Guyana. This is the type of power that voting holds.”
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