Group to hold national dialogue on domestic violence

A national dialogue on domestic violence, will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre today from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.

According to press release from the Roman Catholic Bishop’s Office, The dialogue will emphasise the bridging of organisational, ethnic, political, geographic and other divides through a national conversation on how Guyanese can work together more effectively to eliminate violence against the person, and particularly, domestic violence. The event will be hosted by Respect Due!, a recent initiative involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Guyana.

The release said that Respect Due! is an organisation whose mandate is to identify strategic deficits in the overall effort to address the issue of violence against women and children; to discern the perceptions and attitudes of the participants that work on the issue of violence against women and children, in order to better understand why solutions have been hard to come by despite so much effort and to establish a coordination mechanism/process that promotes synergies and the addressing of strategic deficits, the release also stated.

The release said that the team at the helm of this event includes First Lady Sandra Granger, Anije Lambert and Jean La Rose. As well as Bishop Francis Alleyne Sr., Julie Matthews, Albert Rodrigues, and Lawrence Lachmansingh of the Catholic Church and Jairo Rodrigues of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association.

The organisation is of the opinion that efforts to address the state of women in Guyana have not achieved the desired effect and not for lack of good intentions. Although significant resource scarcities do exist, numerous groups have made consistent efforts over the years to address both the causes and manifestations of human rights abuses of women and children. Unfortunately, these efforts too often appear to be dispersed, unconnected, uncoordinated, unaccountable, and insufficiently supported by those in authority, the release added.

With this in mind, Respect Due! hopes to hear from Guyanese, how community actors may be able to address the difficulties in overall efforts to address the issue of domestic violence and its effects on children and future generations.

This event will be live-streamed on the Catholic Media’s Facebook page.

For more information, call: 226-4469 or 616-8040.