Dear Editor,
On behalf of the board members, management and volunteers of CADVA-Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness, I would kindly ask that you correct the facts in an article published on February 15, titled ‘Call made for improved education for girls – at One Billion Rising Event.’ First, the Caribbean One Billion Rising for Justice event was coordinated through the efforts of CADVA’s Chief Operations Officer and Pro-gramme Director, Dianne Madray, who was tasked with the responsibility for One Billion Rising to be the Caribbean Global Coordinator covering Guyana, St Lucia, Jamaica, Trinidad and Dominican Republic Rising. Your article referenced an initiative which is currently a CADVA initiative as follows:
“…S4 will also be advocating for a missing persons’ legislation that outlines the necessary procedures so that justice can prevail…”
We have reached out via email to Ms Imarah Radix to make this correction and thus far we did not receive a response. Please see the message below sent to Ms Radix on Tuesday February 18, 2014:
“Hi Imarah,
“Please let me know when we can speak. I have some concerns about the article which ran in the Stabroek News Paper. Please note that it made no mention of the collaborative effort and union with Caribbean 1Billion Rising for Justice 2014. Also concerned that what I shared with you on the Missing Persons Act which I have been working on is now an S4 Initiative. Quote: “S4 will also be advocating for a missing persons’ legislation that outlines the necessary procedures so that justice can prevail.” I was actually hoping that all would work as a team on this effort but didn’t feel this was done. Also the efforts of the Caribbean 1Billion Rising Petition was not even mentioned. Please clarify these concerns as I supported S4’s effort but it appears that it stood alone. Let’s talk as I am hoping that we are on the same side.
“Thanks, Dianne”
This initiative of a Missing Person’s Act to be called the Babita Sarjou’s Missing Person’s Act has been for some time and is currently a planned and documented initiative by CADVA. During the coordination of the Caribbean Rising event, this initiative was shared with Imarah Radix, S4 Executive Director. It was only shared in verbal conversations to bring her up to speed on our ongoing initiatives.
Please correct your article accordingly as this is an exclusive CADVA initiative formed from the determined efforts by Dianne Madray relating to the missing person’s Babita Sarjou case. Ms Madray would gladly share more on this
initiative if you would like to know more. She can be reached at diannem@cadva.org.
Currently CADVA is in the process of gathering photos and feedback from our other Caribbean countries on the Billion Rising Event and we will be releasing a public statement to all the Caribbean nations once all parties have reported back to their Caribbean Global Coordinator, Dianne Madray. Please visit our website for more details on our Caribbean Global Coordinator and key representatives of each country: http://www.cadva.org/rising-for-
justice-2014-caribbean-coordinator-cadvas-dianne-madray-shining/ For further clarification, all participants must register with the 1 Billion Rising Organization in order to officially represent this cause. This is the first year any Caribbean country was registered thanks to the efforts of some great volunteers at CADVA making this possible. This year for the first time, we have several Caribbean nations involved. This took great effort and coordination from CADVA to make this a success. We have added two additional countries on our journey, St Lucia and Jamaica. Thus far we are strongly partnered with four major Caribbean nations: Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and Jamaica and we are planning to add two countries each year.
CADVA’s sister organization in Cane Grove, IMRARC created a joint banner with the flags of the countries in the Caribbean who were rising. This was showcased at the Guyana Rising Event as well. Thanks to the many volunteers in Guyana, including the volunteers from S4, who made this joint Caribbean event possible.
We were disappointed to see that this collaborative effort with CADVA as the Caribbean Coordi-nator was not mentioned in your article. We wanted to recognize the many volunteers of CADVA across our Caribbean nations, including the volunteers from S4, who made this event a success, not just in Guyana, but in other countries as well.
CADVA is a US based Non-Profit Organization focusing on advocacy against Domestic Violence by grass roots community efforts, partnering and involvement.
Yours faithfully,
Sukree Boodram
CADVA’s founder and Media/
Administrative Coordinator
Editor’s note
Most of the SN report of February 15 covered Ms Melinda Janki’s address to the gathering. The limited background information in the story derived from flyers which were available at the event, Ms Imarah Radix’s remarks to the participants, and interviews with representatives of some of the NGOs which were present; none of them accorded CADVA a prominent role.
