WOMEN’S rights activists and organisations are calling on government to take emergency action to ensure the reduction of violence against women.Their calls were made at a time when the country is mourning the loss of yet another woman who was mercilessly slaughtered at the hands of a sadistic man.

Georgetown Public Hospital Ambulance Services dispatcher Melissa Skeete, who finished working around 3:00 pm Monday was rushed to the Emergency Room of the institution shortly after by a driver who saw public-spirited citizens trying to help her as she lay bleeding on Church Street, Georgetown.
She was brutally wounded by a man suspected to be the father of her last child and kicked out of the car in broad daylight, as if her life had no worth. She died in the operating theatre.
Meanwhile, Guyana yesterday joined with the world in celebrating International Day against Violence Against Women and with this new addition to the growing number of domestic violence victims, women are crying for help.

The Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday spoke to a few women activists and organisations who have spoken passionately about how Guyana fails its bleeding women whose death may be just a cry away.
ANOTHER FATEFUL DAY!
How much more should our women call? How many more bruises should we take? How many more times should someone be raped? How many more reports do we need to make? How will another life in hell be changed? When will violence against women end? Who is next and when?
These are some of the questions puzzling Guyana’s women, who continue to dread another fateful day, another news story, another telephone call greeting them with the news of another woman slaughtered.
The Chronicle contacted activist Wintress White of Red Thread on Tuesday. She spoke passionately about the deaths and mistreatment of women and pointed out that the lackadaisical attitude of the police has resulted in the deaths of several women over time.
Relatives of Skeete, one of the latest victims of violence against women, told this newspaper that she had long suffered at the hands of the man believed to have killed her and recently reported receiving death threats when she visited the police at the Sparendaam Station, East Coast Demerara.
White counts this as another merciless slaying of a young mother, which could have been prevented. “Here we go again, another woman died! Is this what women’s lives have turned to, that’s it?” she asked rhetorically.
The women’s activist questions Guyana’s position even after training, workshops and conversations over the issue. She recalled that earlier this month an abused woman walked into a police station and reported that her partner had battered and threatened to kill her. Her report was rejected by the police.
“Police told her they cannot do anything about it, because it was ‘Remembrance Day’ and she has to come back.”
Fearing for her life, the woman approached Red Thread who assisted her in getting the cooperation of the same police almost immediately and the man was arrested. While the woman was climbing the stairs at a police station, the man was being escorted down by police, White related.
“That man rushed to the woman and butted her down the stairs,” she said, as the police responded by telling the woman she should not have come up the stairs.
“Where are we with violence against women when the police clearly are not doing what they have to do? An abused woman should just walk into a police station and her report should be taken and the abuser arrested.”
She said a lot more needs to be done at the level of local police stations, as well as generally within the force in order for battered women to be given a fair chance to live.
“When we say a woman’s life is at stake,” police should readily intervene to protect that woman.
CHASING THE RAINBOW
“Without that we are chasing the rainbow,” she stated.
She said government too has a system which fails women as it does not have any ‘halfway house’ for victims of domestic violence, while spending a lot of money on a ‘national conversation’ on domestic violence, which is failing to reach the right people.
“Some of those in charge of these conversations do not even know what it is like to be a victim of domestic violence,” she said, and they therefore cannot readily empathise with those women who suffer at the hands of violent men.
AN EMERGENCY
Meanwhile, Coordinator of Help and Shelter Margaret Kertzious, said though domestic violence may not be stopped, Guyana can do much more to reduce it. She said government should have an ongoing, nationwide public communication outreach programme and treat the issue of violence against women as an emergency.
“Let us saturate Guyana with awareness campaigns against violence against women,” she posited.
Since year 2000, Help and Shelter has opened doors to abused women through the establishment of a shelter for abused women, but the shelter is mostly populated by the children of these women, and has been “under-utilised.”
“People have a distinct taboo about going into a shelter,” she said, adding that many women opt to remain in unsafe conditions until one day another life is taken. She also described the judicial system as “messed up,” since it allows abusers bail.
By Shauna Jemmott