Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr Vindhya Persaud on Friday said that there has been an increase in the number of reports receive via the country’s 914 domestic abuse hotline, which she said is evidence that persons are taking gender-based violence (GBV) more seriously.
“Last year we had 11,327 calls made to that hotline. This year we have passed that number and I could see that that number will continue to climb. You may get worried but I feel better about it because it means that people are taking reporting seriously and I believe that’s the first step in this fight—we must report every instance of violence and abuse…we have made it easy by not only giving that toll free number and that 24 hour service…we have added that number to an iMatter app which offers resources,” she said, while noting that the app has disaggregated information for every level of person.
Persaud made the disclosure when the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security yesterday afternoon launched its local campaign in observance of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and 16 Days of Activism against GBV.
The campaign, held under the theme “UNITE-Activism to end violence against women and girls,” began with ministry staff and other stakeholders partaking in a tree wrapping exercise along the Camp Street avenue, near the junction with Lamaha Street. There were also speeches, skits, dance, poems and songs during a programme that highlighted ways in which violence against women and girls can be minimised or even stopped.
In her address, Persaud noted that for many years November 25 has been dedicated to ending the surge, raising awareness, educating the populations and bringing visibility to the services that each country offers. “As we continue to look at what we’re tackling in our world today and in our country, we are fully aware from that report by UNODC that 81,000 women and girls would have lost their lives in 2021…45,000 of those would have lost their lives at the hands of a family member,” the minister said in her opening remarks.
Persuad said that the Spotlight Initiative, which has been launched in Guyana as part of a collaboration with the United Nations and the European Union, has been a comprehensive programme that has helped to bring safety to a number of women and girls. It was credited for the 914 toll-free hotline.
The minister noted that along with the 914 hotline and the app, the Survivors’ Advocate Programme, the Survivors’ Kit, the Safe Voucher programme and the recently operationalized Legal Pro-bono 500 initiative have been implemented and are working successfully to provide the basics needs and even more for persons who were and are victims of violence.
Along with those initiatives, she stated, the ministry and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) have since been able to train 1,476 policemen under the COPSQUAD initiative to deal with female victims of domestic violence.
Also speaking at the launch was Deputy Commissioner of the GPF Ravindradat Budhram, who said over 30 officers have been dispatched overseas to undergo additional training on domestic violence.
He noted that with the issue becoming so prevalent in Guyana, almost all of the divisions have a safe place at stations where victims and persons who wish to report a domestic matter can be interviewed privately and away from others.
“Each of our stations in the regions, except for those ones far away in the hinterland…we have a domestic violence space or what we call special rooms to address the issue of domestic violence and this is so because we do not want to expose the persons who are reporting or who want to give a statement to all the other persons who are present…we work closely with the various ministries and both government and non-government organizations in addressing the issues…we also have a hotline at our police headquarters and divisions…we have a special unit, a gender-based unit at Police Headquarters to deal with sexual offences…those units fall under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and its being controlled by divisional commanders, so there is a hands-on approach on these domestic violence matters,” he added.
Along with the units at the various divisions, Budhram said that other programmes have been implemented within schools and communities. He noted that the police officers from the COPSQUAD initiative are ones who have higher levels of educations and that they are available 24 hours on the police hotline.
Additionally, Budhram stated that based on their homicide police records, most of the domestic deaths are caused by alcohol and as a result he deemed it as one of the major issues that needs to be addressed.
