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Huairou Update

June 16, 2009

Vol.21

 

"Caribbean Women Creating Safe and Secure Communities:
United to End Violence Against Women and the Spread of HIV"

The Caribbean YWCAs held a regional conference entitled, "Caribbean Women Creating Safe and Secure Communities: United to end Violence Against Women and the Spread of HIV" from May 24-29th, 2009. Deborlyn Hibbert of GROOTS Jamaica attended and participated in this ground-breaking workshop, that brought together women from Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the YWCA developing groups from Haiti and the Virgin Islands. Participants gathered together to share their leading programs on HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and reducing violence against women.
 
The Conference concluded with strong recommendations for strategies to address violence against women and the spread of HIV in the region. Hosted by the YWCA of Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean YWCAs RTI adopted a two-year regional focus strategy addressing violence against women, HIV and AIDS and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The strategy has three key main elements:
 
1) Leadership and Capacity Building: affirmed importance of young women's leadership and an intergenerational approach, as well capacity building;
 

2) Advocacy and Services: placed emphasis on advancing human rights for all women and girls, comprehensive prevention, provision of safe and inclusive spaces;
 

3) Good Governance and Accountability: confirmed the importance of transparency and accountability, good internal leadership and emphasis on need for monitoring and evaluation.
 
The Conference had a strong peer learning element where participants exchanged best practices, and discussed both their successes and challenges in raising awareness around HIV/AIDS reduction and eliminating violence against women.  GROOTS Jamaica representative Deborlyn Hibbert learned and shared a number of key strategies and lessons with regards to creating safer communities for women and reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and brought back important lessons to the women and men of GROOTS Jamaica.
 
Of the experience, Ms. Hibbert exclaimed, "From Day One, there was a real sisterhood experience for me, and my Trinidadian friends made me feel very at home!"
 
Women's livelihoods and economic empowerment were a large part of the discussion, as a means for building women's capacities. The Belize YWCA gave a presentation about their Gender Based Rural Sustainable Livelihoods Project, where women and youth are trained in such skills as cosmetology, food preparation and personal development. They also offer a Business Mentoring and Technical Support Training program in topics such as Marketing, Customer Service and Record Keeping. The purpose of the training is to help women develop their business management skills and principles to increase their income-generating capacity, something that contributes significantly to women's ability to navigate situations of violence.
 
This type of skills-building income-generating program is one that GROOTS Jamaica plans on adopting and implementing, as it would support grassroots women and youth to develop skills to support them to reduce poverty. Ms. Hibbert pointed out that such income-generating activities are imperative to those living in high-risk areas in Jamaica, as residents often have little access to credit to start small businesses or find employment.
 
Participants also discussed the importance of engaging young women and teenagers in their community outreach efforts, and encouraging them to work with their peers as a strategy to spread awareness and develop their leadership potential at a young age. When young women are involved in outreach programs where they can learn life skills, after school activities and involve them in inter-island travel opportunities, their level of confidence and self-awareness is significantly strengthened. Ms. Hibbert brought this set of ideas back to GROOTS Jamaica as an important confidence-building strategy to adopt for the young women in their communities, in an effort to strengthen their ability to mitigate safe sex and counter negative gender stereotypes that often lead to situations of violence.
 
Participants also stressed that information dissemination and outreach efforts must be inclusive of all members of society, regardless of the lifestyle or situations of those seeking support, such as homosexuals or sex workers. There was a strong agreement that making space safer for women includes projecting and incorporating a judgment-free environment to those seeking help. Furthermore, it was agreed that it is important to stop referring to women as "victims," as the experiences are commonly shared. Instead, women and communities can come together to unite against the spread of HIV and ending violence against women.
 
Finally, participants learned a lot from the Caribbean Conference of Churches that work with faith-based organization in dealing with HIV & AIDS. The CCC does not treat this disease as an isolated health issue, but in the context of the current Caribbean development situation in which the islands are battling endemic poverty and a regional drug culture, which is also related to increased levels of crime and violence. Participants took part in both male and female condom demonstration session. The female condom demonstration led to a discussion about how women are mitigating for safe sex. As faith based organizations are able to influence large pockets of the populations, and the fact that places of worship remain the few spaces where whole families can be reached, the CCC is well poised to achieve its various objectives in this area.
 
The Workshop was a considerable success for all those involved, and was a launching pad for GROOTS Jamaica in their efforts in linking and partnering with groups working across the Caribbean working on HIV/AIDS reduction and eliminating violence against women. Ms. Hibbert made new friends and future partners for GROOTS Jamaica with all the participants present, including the Y-Teens in St. Vincent, the YWCA of Belize, the Caribbean Conference of Churches in Trinidad, and YWCA of Trinidad.





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