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Awareness campaign takes to social media
17 women lost to gender-based violence…
Minister of Human Services and Social Security.
Kaieteur News – As Guyana records 17 gender-based violence deaths this year so far, Guyanese are taking to social media to show that they stand in solidarity against violence against women. The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security yesterday launched its “#enoughwiththeviolence” campaign on International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls.
To coincide with the United Nations (UN) initiative’s for 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, the 16 days will be observed under the theme: “Orange the world: Fund, Prevent, Respond, Collect”. According to a release from the Ministry, theme advocates, no more beating, no more hurting, no more killing of our women. Since the launch, a large number of persons across Facebook have used the campaign logo as their profile picture to bring awareness.
The campaign yesterday commenced and will conclude on December 10, 2020.
According to the statement, violence against women is a heinous crime that it is a breach of human rights, and is one of the hardest challenges to the world. Domestic violence involves psyches, attitudes, poverty, cultures, emotional manipulation, substance abuse and lack of education.
In observance of the Day, Minister Vindhya Persaud stated, “Every day we fight a silent and insidious battle against violence meted out to women and girls.”
The Minister added that 17 females have lost their lives this year so far and as a result, 43 children are motherless. She highlighted that despite the number of women that are being killed, still some women are afraid to admit that they are victims of violence.
“Domestic violence remains a taboo, shuttered behind closed doors and only emerging as bloody faces, bruised limbs, broken spirits and dead bodies,” the Minister stated.
She believes that some factors that cause women not to speak up when they are being abused are fear of societal judgment, insecurities about children and finances, family pressure and manipulation.
Another issue the Minister highlighted in her statement is that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many women have been kept in close proximity to their abusers, and reporting has become challenging.
The Minister said, “While we struggle to find the solution, women continue to cower in fear, tell doctors that they fell down the stairs to explain injuries from merciless beatings and lawyers and case workers should continue to plead with them to stay away from their perpetrators.”
She posited that this is the year 2020, and citizens can do better to bring awareness to the situation. She added, “You and I must work in every home, school, office, community, in every part of our country to expose violence against women where it exists, support the women, work with the perpetrators, create safe spaces, educate persons and share solutions…enough with the violence.”
The Minster stated that her Ministry in their zero tolerance campaign against violence against women can bring an end to the seemingly unending wave of violence.
She encouraged persons across the country to join the movement on social media. Persons can visit the Ministry’s Facebook page and use their “#enoughwiththeviolence” logo to bring awareness to gender-based violence.
Next month, the Ministry is expected to launch its 914 emergency hotline, which will link survivors to agencies, advocacy programmes, referral pathways, microenterprise industries, public-private skills employment database matching and offer immediate help to extricate them from violent situations.
The Minister stressed on the importance to report every incident of violence, since by doing that you can save a life.
According to the statement, “The 24 Hour Hotline Operators will offer support, referral to victims and survivors, family, friends and professionals via an integration of the services available at both the Domestic Violence Unit and the Childcare and Protection Agency.”
Through the Survivors Advocacy Programme, nine social workers were trained to offer emotional support and crisis counselling to victims of domestic and sexual violence and act on the victim’s behalf when necessary.
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