Guyana yesterday joined 200 countries around the world to host the ‘One Billion Rising’ gathering, demanding an end to all forms of violence against women.
Women, men and children came together in the Promenade Gardens for the common cause in an afternoon of speeches, poems and dancing. But more importantly, the event provided a forum for women to bond in sisterhood and for some to share their personal experiences of violence or of witnessing same. Talks were given on sexual harassment, domestic violence, trafficking in persons and rape.
The one message reverberated throughout the speeches was that more needs to be done to end violence against women and children and that women are not to be blamed when they are beaten, raped or harassed.
Tropical forest ecologist Dr Raquel Thomas-Caesar, who is attached to the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, spoke about the importance of men accepting when a woman says no to sex, while underscoring the fact that the way women dressed should not be used to justify rape. She said from a limited study she has done 86% of women–and men sometimes–have been raped or sexually abused in Guyana.
President of the Guyana Women’s Miners Organisa-tion (GWMO) Simona Broomes told the chilling story of a 14-year-old who was taken into the interior under false pretence and forced to work as a sex worker.
Also addressing the gathering was First Lady Deolatchmee Ramotar who reminded that men are not women’s enemies but need to be included in the fight to end violence.
Varshnie Singh, a board member of the S4 Foundation which hosted the event, spoke about the need to employ non-violence tactics in one’s everyday life.
The event, which was hosted by the S4 (Stella’s Sisterhood of Support & Services) Foundation, was part of a worldwide one organised by V-Day, a 14-year-old global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day, an Eve Ensler brainchild, encouraged women across the world to: “strike, dance and rise to spread the message of zero tolerance for violence against women.”
“All over the world women – and those who care about them – have been rising up to demand an end to the pervasive violence against women. In Egypt, the rising was instigated by an atrocious gang rape. In Pakistan it was when a young girl was shot in the head just because she wanted an education. In Ireland it was when a woman died because she was refused a life-saving abortion procedure.
In Guyana, we are all too familiar with the widespread and appallingly cruel violence against women in the nation – and now it is time for Guyana to rise,” Stella Ramsaroop, Founder of the S4 Foundation, said before the event.
The S4 Foundation is a network of women committed to helping and supporting other women in Guyana.
