The National Organisation of Women (NOW) is taking its activism into the island’s schools.
And a key event in the 16 Days of Activism currently being observed by NOW and its affiliates, will be visits to the Springer Memorial Secondary School to expose the girls to their programmes and interact with them.
Speaking at the launch of the 16 days at Sky Mall on Saturday night, newly installed public relations officer (PRO), Marsha Hinds-Layne, said it was an attempt to nip in the bud an “interesting trend” which had seen perpetrators of violence against women preying on younger ones.
“In order not to make our girls easy and vulnerable targets, we’ve taken our message into the schools so that we can empower them,” she said.
The fledgling group I Am A Girl, which was started by Alian Olliverre, was one of four organisations installed under the NOW umbrella during Saturday’s ceremony, and the PRO said the effectiveness of NOW would be better seen with the young target group because of the new partnerships.
“We’re feeding a lot of those young ladies who are going through various struggles in their lives into that programme. And we have the Muslim Women of Barbados that can help enhance that type of work. And we have Jabez House which, on the other side, can help us to work with some of the social issues we find within the families when we start to do those interventions.
“And then, of course, we have these health professionals as well, because we’re finding that our young ladies also need that kind of support. So really and truly we’re building a family. We’re building a sisterhood and we’re starting that sisterhood from a younger age,” she noted.
Another one of the activities for the 16 days is NOW In The Community. The aim there is to take the message “beyond the converted”.
“We need to move into those nooks and crannies in our community, where women might not yet know what we know; and they might not yet believe what we believe. We are going to go into a different community every quarter and we’re just going to sit there and we’re going to fellowship with the women,” Hinds-Layne stated.
Other programmes include Sexual Harassment In The Workplace, and partnership with Banks Holdings and Stansfeld Scott to address the issue of date rape. (YB)