Many persons in NGOs and other bodies who are ostensibly supporting women’s drive for self-empowerment are either merely using this platform as stepping stone to further their own interests – whether materially, financially, or to gain access to power and enabling structures, or recognition in the society as a do-gooder.
As such, they have developed attitudes of superiority toward women in need of help, which further diminishes the self-esteem and self-confidence of women living under duress of any sort.
Most women in need of assistance have already been battered either by society, their families, their circumstances, or their spouses who are instead supposed to protect them.  Many are dignified women pursuing professional lives that need their image of being in charge, intact in order to be successful in their spheres of work, and yet others are themselves iconic figures featuring in the public’s eye, and admitting to being a victim would disempower them and reduce their respectability in the eyes of the public, because, ironically, people are prone to deride a victim, preferring instead to align themselves with strength and assertiveness.
Some policemen contend that they do not pay heed to complaints about spousal abuse by women because the victims almost always subsequently have a change of heart; but even police personnel have been either victims or perpetrators of this great societal ill, and they are quite aware, either by their own experiences or from observing the experiences of their colleagues, that the emotional ties and financial dependency are most often determining factors to women changing their minds and withdrawing their charges in these cases. Authorities therefore need to factor this into their training regimen so that there would be greater understanding and empathy by the ranks in dealing with victims of spousal abuse.
And this training should not preclude police personnel from advising a battered woman to seek help or shelter from the various institutions that provide support to distressed women.
However, the Government, although it has already invested in empowerment initiatives for women, this has mainly targeted single women and it needs to also look toward the needs of women held in bondage in marriages and relationships, with the shackles being either and/or emotional, psychological, and financial dependency, or even fear.
It is easy to advise a woman to leave a home she has lovingly nurtured over the years, from which her children attend schools and other related factors of familiarity, to go off into the great unknown, especially women from the rural areas, so simultaneous to the advice to leave her abusive spouse should be opportunities provided for rapid integration into another home environment that would ensure that children involved are subject to as little feelings of dislocation as possible.
This is the area where the Government needs to strengthen its efforts.
Many instances of abuse have been encouraged by associates, family members, and neighbours who get a thrill out of the problems of others.  Many women sit at home with nothing to do but gossip and create strife, and they get endless satisfaction from derogating and creating problems for their less fortunate counterparts.  Sadly, men in society have generally lost that sense of chivalry that would prompt them to come to the rescue of someone in need, or to intervene when they see advantage and injustice being perpetrated against someone.
The Guyanese society has changed tremendously from when we were our brother’s keeper and all the children in a community were everyone’s responsibility; and until there is a reversal of attitude in the society, no matter how much money the Government pumps into people-empowerment initiatives, men would always be battering women, whether under the influence of alcohol/drugs or not, children would always be the victims of domestic turmoil, and society itself would always be held hostage to the consequential fallout of such degenerating dynamics.