Overseas motor racers on a visit to Kaieteur Falls

An important intervention

By Jainarine Deonauth

About 600 members ofthe Christian, Hindu,Muslim, Rastafarianand Baha’i faiths will soon beequipped with the necessaryknowledge and skills to help inthe fight against the high levelsof domestic violence currentlybeing experienced in society.On a recent visit to NewYork, President Jagdeo hadmet with faith-based leadersand had requested assistancein different areas of nationbuilding. The president hadhinted at Guyana’s moral decline,and had identified somefactors hindering the governmentfrom realizing its nationaldevelopment objectives. ANew York-based team, headedby Dr. Cecil Mercurius, wasthen recruited to work withother local stakeholders inhelping to deal with the issueof domestic violence.This is a very important intervention,and the authoritieshave stated that they arewilling to join forces with allpartners — regardless of politicalbeliefs, religious or culturalbackgrounds — to battle thescourge of domestic violence,since this issue has become anational crisis and thereforeneeds a national response.Sometime ago, we reportedon a Gender-Based Violenceworkshop that was organizedby the United NationsDevelopment Fund for Women(UNIFEM), in partnershipwith the ministries of HumanServices and Culture, Youthand Sports. At that workshop,some quite shocking revelationswere made with respectto the level of domestic and sexualviolence in the Caribbean,in particular Guyana. The statisticswould cause anyone tobe alarmed, and would beg thequestion “what is being doneto reverse this trend?” A topUnited Nations official, TonniBrodber, revealed that the averagerate of sexual violenceacross the Caribbean is higherthan that of the world. Brodberalso reported that, accordingto UNIFEM’s ExecutiveDirector Ines Alberdi, 70 percent of women experiencephysical or sexual abuse frommen in their lifetimes. She furthermade reference to a WorldBank report which states thatthe overall murder rate in theCaribbean is four times thatof North America, while threeCaribbean islands rank amongthe ten countries that havethe highest incidences of rapeworldwide. In addition, the reportmentions that all of theCaribbean islands have higherrates of sexual violence thanthe world average.With regards to Guyana,Brodber pointed to statisticswhich show that one in fourGuyanese women has beenphysically abused in a relationship.The increase in domesticviolence has been blamedon several reasons, includingchildren being socialised in asociety that propagates violenceand abuse of alcohol anddrugs; and there are many solutionswhich have been putforward before to protect ourwomen and girls from experiencingthe level of violencewe see in our society today.To what extent these recommendationshave, or have not,worked is not very clear. Whatwe know for sure is that thereis no one solution; there needsto be a combination of ongoingmeasures, with the involvementof government, religiousand non-governmental organizations(NGOs), the police andthe judiciary, and the communitiesas a whole, to deal holisticallywith the problem.Brodber has stated thatefforts currently being madeto end domestic violence willmean nothing if people in society,both men and women, donot view it as a serious threatto the overall wellbeing of thesociety. President BharratJagdeo was on target whenhe stated, during his openingspeech at the conferencewith religious leaders, that addressingthe dreaded issue ofdomestic violence is not therole of the government or parliamentalone, and that ourmindset must be changed sothat we can tackle the broaderissue and get to the sourceof the problem, hence the involvementof all actors in thesociety.In particular, the presidentpointed out that the churches,mosques and temples “mustfunction as second homes, andprovide guidance to youthswhen they make crucial decisions,so they can select theroad which leads to prosperityand hope, rather than violenceand death”. He also stated thatmost leaders are on the frontlinewhere they are exposed tomisery, and their role shouldbe to “transform abuse to care,and change indifference to ambition.We hope that, upon returningto their communities,the beneficiaries of thesetraining programmes wouldtake a more proactive approachto dealing with domesticand gender-based violence,since in some cases they havebeen known to turn a blind eyeto the different forms of abusethat occur within their ownneighbourhoods.The administration has,no doubt, taken the right approachin addressing the issue,by creating the necessary legislativeframework and seekingthe involvement of majornational stakeholders, includingthe religious community.The police and the judiciaryalso have a role to play, whichthey must take seriously.