Women speak out against domestic violence…
It is a subject that often occupies a prominent place on this newscast: violence, all too often violence against women. But tonight’s lead story is not about a rape, murder or other type of assault; it is about all of these acts and more, which when added together amount to a characteristic of Belizean society that can only be viewed with shame. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has more.
Jacqueline Wood, Reporting
You may not know the woman on this poster, but thirty-five year old Lorna Wade represents the hundreds of Belizean women and young girls who are regularly subjected to abuse. So far this year, four hundred and ninety-two cases of domestic violence have been reported
Lorna Wade, Survivor, Domestic Violence
?I lost sight in one of my eyes, I can?t smell, I can?t taste and if I bend plenty, I tend to drop. I lone go into fits several times they have to call the ambulance for me.?
Five months ago, Wade was beaten and left to die after her common law husband Eston Young attacked her with a two by four. Today she has not only walked away from that abusive relationship but she has broken the silence in an effort to stop the violence.
Lorna Wade
?I no think it is fair for a woman to go through this abuse especially young teenagers. A lot of young, teenaged girls are going through this abuse so by me talking I pray that they hear me and they get out of the relationship before it gets to the point where I reached because I reached, nearly lose my life.?
Violence against women has not only increased but intensified. Like the rape and murder of sixteen year Elia Gonzales, the stabbing death of twenty five year Keisha Lavern Gordon, the shooting death of twenty one year old Myra Guadalupe Cunil, the chopping of twenty five year old Shirley Arnold, the rape and killing of seventeen year old Sheila Hall, the shooting death of Irene Gibson who was five months pregnant and the rape and strangulation of eighteen year old Melissa Swazo, eight months pregnant. Still missing is thirty-seven year old Astrid Perera whose family fears and alleges she was killed by her ex-husband. Wade says it is not easy for women to leave an abusive relationship and explains why it took her twelve years to say goodbye.
Lorna Wade
?I wanted to give my children them a home and the other thing is he threatened me and there are like three or other stories. He promised he would change and he wouldn?t do it again. I believed him. I believed that he would change. I believe that maybe it?s something that I wasn?t doing or maybe it?s something that I could do better. I tried a lot of different ways but it got worst instead of getting better.?
The ministry of health reports that eighty-five percent of the women are being abused by someone they know like a spouse, common ?law-husband or boyfriend. The assaults include sexual, physical and psychological.
Pete Castillo, Supporter, Women Against Violence
?Invariably we are taught as males that we must do things in a macho kind of way, be a man, that?s what we were told. We tell our kids as we grow up, don?t do this, don?t be a sissy, be a man.?
Pete Castillo, a father of a fourteen year old boy and an avid supporter of Women Against Violence, says far too many young boys grow up watching their fathers beat their mothers and think it?s the right thing to do when they have a family of their own.
Pete Castillo
?Men need to speak out. Men need to stop being macho. They need to look more at a change in that traditional role of being a masculine or a he person. They need to understand that we can just be as effective male without hitting. We can be just as strong, just as vibrant, just as big or bad without being violent towards women.?
Because only fifteen percent of cases are estimated to be reported to authorities, many women continue to suffer in silence…much to the frustration of the police.
Carmen Zetina, Commissioner of Police
?We are legally-bound to follow up on any report made on domestic violence. But what is most frustrating is that number of times that you have the same victims coming back later on after we had investigated the whole matter. Sometimes even the matter is before the court and they go to the court or come to the police and withdraw on their complaints.?
Today, Haven House, the main shelter for battered women launched a one year campaign to end the violence.
Anna Romero, President, Haven House
?I would say we are effective once the people who go there, keep it a secret. It?s not an address or a location that is known to the public. The Women?s Department have access to it. The Family Violence Unit have access it to it. Other than that we just have a hotline number. Now we depend on the people who go there not to repeat the location when they come out and that is as effective as we can get.?
President of Haven House, Anna Romero says unfortunately once the women leave the safe environment, some of them wind up returning because there are no support systems in place to help them.
Anna Romero, President, Haven House
?That?s our major goal right now to get some type of in house counselling so that when women go in there they have professional help. So that when they leave they have a better idea or a better outlook on what they are going to do when they leave. Because presently we don?t have a counsellor there and women go in and yes we keep them safe for the time period. But when they leave, some of them have no other choice, but to go back to the situation that they come from.?
Haven House hopes that at the end of the campaign they would have raised the awareness that will make people start making the changes to end the abuse and violence against women. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Haven House has a new hotline number. That number is 222-4343. As part of the campaign this evening, The Belize Theatre Company presented a one act play titled Nora Lives. The production is based on Nora Parham, the Belizean woman who was convicted of murder and hanged in the 1960’s after she threw gasoline over her husband and killed him. Parham, in her defence, had said she suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband.
