Dear Editor,
While the government, NGOs and other entities and institutions are increasingly focusing on redressive acts and measures to tackle gender-based and domestic violence, that focus is missing a key element. It was the view of The Caribbean Voice that when Men On Mission (MOM) was launched, gender-based and domestic violence, as part of a holistic focus on violence, would be a significant component of MOM’s mission.
The simple reality is that no matter how focus in placed on victims, the critical need is to stop the abuse, and this can really only be done by putting the abusers and the abuse under the lens.
A number of Caribbean nations, such as St. Lucia, Barbados and Bermuda, have started this process, and Guyana needs to play catch up with a national batterers’ program and campaign. MOM is ideally placed to lead this charge, thus should be provided with the requisite training, skill sets and resources. Change the mindset of one abuser and that person’s abuse stops; help a victim as much as possible and jail the abuser but the potential for further abuse still remains, the victim has already been scarred for life and in the case of femicide, the victim is no more.
So we again say, the government and the related ministries must launch a national program to rehabilitate abusers and to sensitize other males in order to change mindsets and behaviour towards our women folk. And, as an editorial in one newspaper pointed out, this must be an inclusive process that also embraces the school – bend the willow while it’s young, as a Native American saying goes.
Sincerely,
Annan Boodram
