IN LIGHT OF THE MANY challenges facing women across Guyana and by extension the region and the world at large, the Student Society Against Human Rights Violation led a small but significant march on Saturday demanding an end to street harassment and violence against women, and children.
The need for the introduction of comprehensive sex education in public schools; free, safe and easily accessible reproductive health care for all and equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) society were also brought to the fore.
The march, which was held under the theme “A March for Girls – Equality, Protection, Justice,” was inspired by the Life in Leggings (LIL) Movement, which started in Barbados by Ronelle King and Luci Hammans.
As such, it coincided with the “Reclaim Our Streets” march, which was organized by the LIL Movement, and held in seven Caribbean countries: Barbados, Dominica Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, The Bahamas, Grenada and Antigua & Barbuda on the same day and at the same time.

Here in Guyana, the march started shortly after 15:00h at Stabroek Market Square and proceeded along Brickdam before culminating at the Square of the Revolution.
President and Co-founder of the Student Society against Human Rights Violation, Akola Thompson, and Natasha Houston, who not only lost her right arm but her two children in a ruthless attack by her now dead ex-spouse, shared their horrific experiences as victims of Domestic Violence. But most importantly, the young activists championed the need for all to speak out against gender based violence against women and children.
Speaking directly to women in abusive relationships, Thompson and Houston said it was time to break the silence.
“If you experience any form of abuse, like slapping, kicking, whatever, just speak out…find somebody you are comfortable with and speak with them…If I had listened to my mom, my daughter would have been 10 years, and son would have been six years, but they both got murdered by the hands of their own father, so women don’t take the abuse, speak out,” Houston said as she encouraged women to stand up against domestic violence, noting that lives can be saved.
Attorney-at-Law and Social Activist, Nadia Sagar, who was among guest speakers at the forum, said activists are ever so often given labels that seek to diminish rather than accommodate or encourage.
Sagar recalled that her first real experience with activism in Guyana was when she opted to participate in a WPA protest following the Omani Gold Mines Limited cyanide spill which occurred in 1995 when 400 million gallons of cyanide laced materials spilled into the Essequibo River.
It was while at that protest that Sagar, a young law student then, met Karen De Souza – women and child’s rights activist, who had inspired her.
In her early days as a junior attorney, Sagar said “I endured the male gaze from colleagues and clients, sexual innuendoes, and lasciviousness were common place in the spaces that I worked. I sat in boardrooms as vagina and two breasts, an object. That was 20 or so years ago, things have changed and so have I.”

Sagar said after coming to the reality that she would not be able to change the world, she comforted herself with the fact that she can make small changes in the lives of people, and as such reclaimed her activism.
“Activism takes on a multitude of forms in a variety of socio, political and economic environments. It does not require a uniform, we are all activists on any given day,” she posited. To the activists, young and old, Sagar urged against setting rigid platforms, noting that there are no rules.
“Today you are standing for women and girls, girls like my daughter, and I ask you to clear a path for her, and all of the girls who would grow up silencing themselves, smiling as they were taught to do, even as they wither inside,” Sagar said as she broke down in tears.
“Embrace your power, even if you are afraid, embrace your power in whatever form it takes, write a letter, talk, stand on the picket line, ask a bus driver or a DJ to change the music…,” she added while making a call for Guyanese to stand up against the down doings in society.
The march, which culminated with a sensitization forum, was supported by Help and Shelter, Child Link Foundation, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), the Women and Gender Equality Commission, and other non-governmental organisations.