Statements

International Women's Day 2007 is today being celebrated in a Guyana in which the attitudes to the use of violence have further escalated, especially violence between people who know each other.

Help & Shelter joins with SASOD in condemning the lyrics promoting
homophobia, the culture of gun violence and violence against women of
the Jamaican group T.O.K. at the Digicel concert on 14th February. The
incident in which sexually inappropriate remarks were made to an
underage girl by one of the T.O.K. band members at this concert is
further cause for alarm. We also understand that on arrival in Guyana,
a T.O.K. band member was heard to say that he would show young
Guyanese girls how to behave towards him.

Help & Shelter and Red Thread joined in submitting the a draft policy recommendation for the Domestic Violence Task Force to submit to the Government of Guyana. This draft was developed pursuant to a mandate agreed at the Task Force meeting on 11 January 2007.

Help & Shelter conducted this activity as part of its Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative funded by the UNIFEM Trust Fund on Violence against Women.

15 January, 2007
Help & Shelter has read with interest the discussion and comments surrounding the case of the 13 year old girl who had given birth to a baby who had been allegedly kidnapped, then found and returned to her mother.

Stabroek News ran an editorial castigating agencies for not raising their voices or taking any action, yet reported in the same issue that the Ministry of Human Services was in fact in the process of taking action! How many people will have read (and been influenced by) the prominent editorial compared with the small article in the back page?

Open letter to MPs on CP
THIS is an open letter to Members of Parliament on the issue of
corporal punishment which they will be debating in the House tomorrow.

I petition you, the Members of Parliament, that legislation be passed
to abolish corporal punishment of children in schools, homes and all
other child-care institutions.

The following are the reasons for abolishing corporal punishment:

5 December, 2006 and reissued 2 June, 2007
[img_assist|fid=28|thumb=1|alt=picket1] [img_assist|fid=34|thumb=1|alt=picket3]

Open Letter to all Honourable Members of the Ninth Parliament, National Assembly of Guyana on the removal of corporal punishment from the Education Act .

Dear Member

PRESS RELEASE

PROVIDING EFFECTIVE JUSTICE FOR WOMEN VICTIMS REQUIRES THE COLLECTIVE ENERGY OF ALL SECTORS

Violence against women is so pervasive in Guyana today that only a concerted effort by all concerned can make any headway in reducing the problem. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women provides an opportunity for an unprecedented mobilisation of both civil society and government to provide effective justice for women and girls, who remain the overwhelming victims of all forms of violence.

Help & Shelter is pleased to announce that its shelter for abused women and their children has been reopened.

The reopening of the shelter, which was shut in February 2004 due to lack of funds, has been made possible through an arrangement with the Government of Guyana whereby the shelter will be used as both a place of safety for female victims of domestic violence and as a temporary home for female and under-14 male victims of trafficking in persons.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS AS LARGE A THREAT TO SURVIVAL IN GUYANA AS OTHER VIOLENCE

A decade and a half ago, a group of Guyanese called on the then President to recognize violence against women and girls as a national crisis demanding the same attention as other grave threats to the survival of the Guyanese people. Across the years, similar calls have been issued to political parties, all without adequate response.

25 November 2004

Statement by Help & Shelter and Red Thread on International Day against Violence against Women, and in commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women