BOWAND to host regional conference
Belizean participants will join twenty-five of their Central American counterparts for a three-day conference on “Domestic Violence and Gender”. The regional meeting, which is being hosted by The Belize Organisation for Women and Development, BOWAND, and The Central American Federation of Community Organisations, opens on Sunday at the Belize Biltmore Plaza. BOWAND’s Public Awareness Officer Dianne Finnegan says plenary sessions begin on Monday at 8:30 a.m. at The Princess Hotel.
Dianne Finnegan, Public Awareness Officer, BOWAND
“We have speakers like Mrs. Anita Zetina, Elaine Clarke from the Medical Department who will be giving us some statistics on the actual situation of domestic violence in our country and talking about the new form that is being used now to document these statistics. We also will have two speakers from the Family Violence Unit, the Police Department, two from the Family Court.”
“The whole theme is going to be domestic violence and gender. On Tuesday, Ms. Anita Zetina will be doing that session for us and we’ve asked that the participants be both male and female because there’s no use doing gender training for only women. I think we need to get the message across that this is an issue that both male and female… we need to find the solution to and only working together will we be able to accomplish that.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What would you like participants to take away from the three day conference?”
Dianne Finnegan
“Basically and most importantly, try to build some self-esteem, getting to know their rights, getting to know the laws that exist within each one of these Central American countries and how it’s there to assist them. So it’s actually getting to know what domestic violence is all about.”
The conference will not confine itself to the city as on Thursday the participants will visit groups in Crooked Tree and Bermudian Landing to see what they are doing at the community level to combat domestic violence. On Friday the over fifty delegates will have the opportunity to enjoy a slice of Garifuna life when they attend cultural presentations in Dangriga and Hopkins.
