Although Guyana’s women have made immense strides over the last four decades, the vast majority, and particularly those in rural areas, is not adequately served by programmes in place for social and economic development, APNU+AFC coalition candidate Cathy Hughes said yesterday.
Hughes was at the time addressing a coalition news conference ahead of its planned women’s rally today, which has been organised to address a range of issues affecting the female populace of Guyana and the strategies that can be used to address them.
Sandra Granger, the wife of presidential hopeful David Granger and Sita Nagamootoo, the wife of prime ministerial candidate Moses Nagamootoo, are among key women in the coalition scheduled to make presentations at the event, which will be held on the Merriman Mall between Light and Cummings streets.
Nicolette Henry, the rally coordinator, told reporters that the issues that will be raised at the rally include health reform, education reform, teenage pregnancy, poverty and violence against women and according to Henry. The event, which begins at 6PM, is being held under the theme ‘Call to Action for Women of Guyana.’
She said the objectives of the rally are twofold: to address issues affecting women and girls while giving members of the public an opportunity to discuss some of the strategies that can be implemented; and to introduce some of the coalition’s female candidates
A panel of all female members of the coalition hosted this week’s press conference and chose to focus on women’s issues, particularly empowerment and domestic violence.
Hughes, reading from a prepared statement, described Guyanese women as “strong and ambitious” and signalled that the coalition was proud of the “immense strides” that some have made over the last 40 years, particularly in pursuing higher education, functioning at high professional levels while maintaining peaceful, loving homes for their children.
However, she pointed out that the vast majority of women have not progressed and the coalition is not “at all satisfied with the quality of programmes and services currently in place for the social and economic development of our women especially in rural areas.”
She said some women still do not have sufficient knowledge about the laws and their rights regarding domestic violence and gender equality.
Expressing concern at the failure of the police to address these issues as is evident with the deaths and maiming of many women at the hands of men, Hughes also made mention of human trafficking and how young women in the city and the hinterland become victims.
“From all appearances, there does not appear to be any concerted administrative strategy to effectively address this gaping hole in the fabric of this society,” she read.
She said the women and youth arms of the coalition intend to institute a comprehensive programme to achieve full empowerment by providing functional facilities for education (general and vocational), specialized skills training and facilitating financial assistance for small business development.
On the social spectrum, she said the coalition intends to go into full attack mode to confront the incredibly high rates of suicide and domestic violence against women and children in urban and rural communities with the involvement of religious and community leaders.
Meanwhile asked about the coalition not listing Vanessa Kissoon on its list of candidates, given the fact that she used her platform to speak up on women rights, Volda Lawrence said Kissoon is a member of the PNCR and one who is valued.
“Vanessa Kissoon is not chosen for the list like many others. There are hundreds of other women out there who are working and who are not recognised and they are not on our list,” she stressed. “We are going to be the next government and we will have lots of positions to fill and I am quite certain that Ms Kissoon will be on a slate where she could exercise her experience for the Guyanese people,” she stressed.
Responding to a question about what plans a coalition government would have to strengthen penalties for crimes committed against women, Lawrence questioned whether this would solve the issue. She told reporters that if this is what will solve the issue then “we don’t have to wait for the coalition.” She said the coalition had found that lobbying for stronger penalties will not solve the issue. “We have a problem presently in our system that is deep rooted and we have tackle it from all fronts,” she pointed out, while noting that laws need to be looked at and there must be an effort to ensure that there is due process. Lawrence also questioned whether giving a perpetrator more jail time will reform him. “I think that we have to ensure as a responsible government that we look at ways where we can reform those persons,” she said, adding that the source of the issue has to first be tackled.
Asked about the coalition’s plan to deal with human trafficking, Beverly Alert said there will a zero tolerance stance. Describing it as “probably the worst crime against humanity, a female especially,” she said that work has to be done on all fronts, including enlisting the religious community, civil society groups and the mining community in all efforts.
She congratulated head of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation Simona Broomes and her team for their anti-human trafficking efforts. Broomes is listed as a candidate on the coalition’s National Top Up list. Alert noted that work also has to be done with law enforcement officials who have been accused in the past of not taking the appropriate action when reports are made.
“It must become a national effort,” she added, while stressing that the fight also involved the country’s international partners.
Asked whether there were any challenges in either parties in deciding the placement of “strong” women to the leadership roles, Lawrence responded that she is a member of the PNC – one of the country’s oldest parties – which had a track record of women in leadership roles. She said that as it relates to the two highest positions—president and prime minister—“our party can unilaterally campaign for and have nominated David Arthur Granger as our presidential candidate. With regard to Mr Nagamootoo, our party members understand that we are in a coalition and so there are some things that we would have to give and sometimes we would have to accept and we have found absolutely no rejection from persons within our party for the nomination of Mr Moses Nagamootoo as the prime ministerial candidate.”
She said that when the coalition takes the helm, there will be an opportunity to train young women to take those leading roles. “In the future I am quite certain that we will throw up women presidential candidates and prime ministerial candidates. That is in the making. It will happen,” she said.
Alert added that the late Sheila Holder was the founder of the AFC. She said that the AFC fully endorses Granger and Nagamootoo and believes that “they have what it takes to move this country forward. We see moving this country forward as a team effort and so while we may not see a woman as the presidential or prime ministerial candidate, be assured that there are some very, very strong women hanging shoulder-to-shoulder with those two gentlemen, working just as hard, probably even harder, to make sure this country is firmly set on the path of sustainable development.”
Hughes said that part of the challenge, from her experience, is that women sometimes do not want to come forward and take up these leadership roles. “This is a real challenge because when we look at the way we play politics in Guyana it is just alien to any average or normal woman… to have to want to go down in the gutter to be involved in politics the way it is done,” she said before opining that “we need to change the way we do it.” She said that more women will come forward if they did not feel that “they had to be the butt of every joke…” She said that most women feel comfortable being involved at the community and party levels and not in the leadership roles.
Asked whether she will be a candidate for a VP post within her party, Hughes said she was clueless as such an issue has not yet been addressed.
Also on the panel were Alicia Roopnaraine and Latchmin Punalall.
