Region Eight is being punished for not supporting PPP/C - Crawford

Region Eight is being punished for not supporting PPP/C – Crawford

Apr 06, 2015 News

Earlier last month, 39-year-old Aruna Sookram was hospitalised, after her reputed husband chopped and physically assaulted her following a confrontation at their Herstelling, East Bank Demerara home. Kaieteur News understands that immediately following her recovery, she moved back in with her attacker.
This situation is not at all uncommon within our society according to Guyanese Women Roundtable (GWR) senior member, Dr. Dawn Stewart. She acknowledged that the fact that some women return to abusive relationships, is the prime reason that police officers sometimes refuse to intervene.

“We need to understand that the police are humans too,” Dr. Stewart related.
Sookram’s case first came into the limelight after some of her employees ran to her rescue, after her husband chopped her, “broadsided” her and then doused her body and their home with kerosene, in an attempt to burn it down with her inside.
The police were quick to respond, and apprehended the man. However, this newspaper was made to understand that, against the warnings of her mother, Sookram went back to the man whom her mother alleges repeatedly abused her prior to that unfortunate incident.

APNU+AFC member Ronald Bulkan

Another glaring example of this disturbing phenomenon is the case of 20-year-old Samantha Alli whose husband allegedly beat her up and tossed her out of their Fisher Dam, Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo home.
Her mother, Kumarie “Sunita” Mhaaramie informed Kaieteur News that her daughter got involved with her abuser when she was 16-years-old and has been a victim of his violent tendencies ever since.
Statistics indicate that reported cases of domestic violence are growing every year, and this, according to Dr. Stewart, might be the case since enough attention is not being given to the male abusers. She stated, “The abuser needs help as well as the abused…But in our culture, we do not address the men.”
In addition to that, Dr. Stewart went into the emotional attachment that a woman would carry around for a man and the reality that most women assume that the love that they share for their abuser has the ability to eliminate his abusive streak.
To battle these situations from as many angles as they possibly can, Dr. Stewart explained that GWR has been working with three initiatives. One of them is brothers informing brothers on topics of healthy lifestyles, which involves men educating men, on the value of women and how to respect them.
The second initiative is, men informing sisters on topics of healthy relationships, which involve men educating women on the same.

And finally, sisters informing sisters on topics of healthy lifestyles, which involve women inspiring women. These three
initiatives allow both sexes to appreciate each other, and provide a forum where both sides can get their ideas across.
On the March 16 last roundtable discussion hosted by United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), on the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Women’s Rights, one of the members of a women’s right agency was recorded as saying, “with respect to cases of abused women returning to their abusive relationships, we have educated women, but not the men. So what we find are cases where we educated the woman on the dangers of domestic violence, and she returns to the home with the uneducated man.”
In explaining that each case has to be broken up and dealt with by itself, Dr. Stewart related that economic dependence, the fact that the abused woman would sometimes blame herself, coupled with issues that might be affecting the man like alcohol abuse, and the need to have control of the women, all have to be considered.
She said that the task is relatively difficult to deal with, given the various factors that need to be considered. She stressed that women do not return to abusive relationships, they return to men who promise them that they are going treat them better.
However, these three initiatives are a start as they cover the education of both sexes, which might be able to curb this prevailing circumstance, while making it more convenient for the police to get involved.