NOW promotes anti-violence messages

Barbados’ National Organisation for Women (NOW) took its campaign against violence against women to the streets yesterday with a motorcade through the parishes of St Michael and St James as part of activities marking the international campaign, 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.
Clad in orange t-shirts bearing the slogan “End the Silence – Stop the Violence”, they were joined by members of the Barbados Professional Women (BPW), Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Barbados Labour Party Women and the Soroptimist Club.
NOW President Avelyn Christie said the motorcade was part of a “three-fold attack” to educate and raise awareness of gender-based violence in society.

“We want to sensitise the population on the 16 days of activism, the purpose of the 16 days of activism, the importance of these 16 days of activism, the reasoning behind the 16 days of activism.
“We want to sensitize you to get involved in the fight against domestic violence, (and) we also want to sensitise persons to the fact that NOW is in the Barbados society and we are here to address and to meet the needs of females,” she said.

Christie mentioned that while NOW has had a history of targeting older women, they are aiming to reach the young adult females in the communities.
“We want to…touch our young girls, touch our teenagers, our small girls in primary school so as a result we will be working with our affiliates in various programs, teaching…and advocacy programs” she said.

“We are working with our affiliates, in terms of speaking to our young ladies so that people do not think that NOW is only for old women,” Christie added.
The President stressed that NOW would not be able to rest “until each female in Barbados…no matter the age is aware, that as women, we need to band together and there are certain issues we need to address”. (KK)