Urgent Need for Women’s Commission Chapter in San Pedro

The National Women’s Commission is working to establish a chapter in San Pedro to address the number of domestic violence and gender-based violence cases on Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye. Late last week, a meeting was held with various stakeholders from both public and private sector entities, including N.G.O.s, to establish a group that will activate to address complaints of this nature. For quite some time, there have been multiple reports of gender-based violence on the island. News Five spoke with NWC President, Thea Garcia-Ramirez.

Thea Garcia-Ramirez

Thea Garcia-Ramirez, President, National Women’s Commission

“There are situations that are clearly distinct and unique to every district, but particularly San Pedro has its own issues to deal with and its own set of circumstances. And in order for the district committees to be successful and effective, they need to work within the framework that they are in. San Pedro has a large community and has challenges that are unique here. District chapters are really multisectoral in that they do have representatives from the police, from health, from education. Of course we are under the Ministry of Human Development and so we have a Human Development Officer here. So it is a very multisectoral collaborative effort that goes on.”