Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Speaking up By THEA RUTHERFORD ~ Guardian National Correspondent ~ thea@nasguard.com: On Wednesday, November 25 the Bahamas Crisis Centre will join the world in commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Recognized since December 17, 1999 when the United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution for its designation, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women was created to raise public awareness for an ongoing issue that is gaining traction across the globe. The buzz surrounding the recent release of the film "Precious," produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry and based on the novel "Push" by critically acclaimed author Sapphire, has only added to the voices that are speaking out against sexual violence internationally. The Bahamas Crisis Centre has led the charge against domestic and sexual violence in all of its forms locally for the past 27 years, and continues to do so with the commemoration of this international day of recognition as well as the celebration of Crisis Centre month throughout the month of November. The Crisis Centre will host a workshop on sexual violence for stakeholders at Transfiguration Baptist Church tomorrow in recognition of the Day. "Wednesday November, 25 is International Day of Violence Against Women, recognized all around the world as a day to focus on the increasing violence where women are the victims," said Dr. Sandra Dean Patterson, director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre. "The Crisis Centre determined to have an activity on Wednesday to focus on sexual violence as a problem that confronts us on a daily basis." As part of its drive to raise awareness of sexual violence, the Crisis Centre has also played a significant role in drawing attention to the alarming statistics surrounding sexual violence in the country. At a press conference held on September 29, the Caribbean-wide Day to End Sexual Violence, Dr. Patterson relayed some of these statistics. "The United Nations Crime Trends Survey published in 2007 indicates The Bahamas is well above worldwide averages for the number of assaults per population sample," she said. "In the case of rape, The Bahamas records 133 rapes per 100,000 people, where the worldwide average is 15. In a population of 350,000 this is unacceptable." Wednesday's workshop, one of a number of activities conducted by the Crisis Centre this month, is meant to bring stakeholders together to discuss ways to alleviate the crisis. "The figures are unbelievably high and men, women and children are victims, but we're focusing on this particular day on the wide range of sexual violence," said Dr. Patterson. "We're looking at stranger rape, acquaintance rape, child rape, male rape, gang rape and of course spousal rape. And we want to look at the dynamics, what is going on in our country, that's causing this incredible escalation in sex violence." The Sexual Violence workshop comes on the heels of the Crisis Centre's Teen Relationship Violence workshop, which was held last Thursday at the East Street Gospel Chapel. Seventy students from a number of schools around the island attended the workshop designed to get teens talking about relationship violence and ways to prevent the problem. Dr. Patterson called the workshop successful. "The young people who came were energized and we're looking forward to going into the individual schools in January with the program," she said. "What we recognize is that we have to tool our children, we have to give our children the skills, the tools, the strategies to handle violence. Anger is a normal emotion, it's how we handle anger that makes the difference, and many times the messages that our children get are pro-violence and there's very little opportunity for them to talk about justice and peace and non-violence."
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 |
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