Dear Editor,

HARDLY a week passes without a news item in the media outlets of some form of abuse committed against women and girls in this country. These heinous acts have long passed alarming proportions, with the most recent being: 1. “Girl 12 allegedly raped by father. “(Kaieteur News, March 27, 2021) and 2. “Husband claims self-defense in attempted murder of pregnant wife. “(Guyana Chronicle, March 28, 2021).
The statistics from a comprehensive national survey on gender-based violence in Guyana revealed that, “55 per cent of Guyanese women between 15-34 years were abused by their partners.” (News Room, November 13, 2019). The very UN survey found that, “existing violence prevention initiatives are limited in Guyana.” Make no mistake, excellent work has been done by various arms of the UN, the Ministry of Social Security, Parliament and NGOs to bring a halt to this endemic violence against women and girls; in what is now also considered as a global pandemic, but for which there is no vaccine to stop it.

Editor, it will soon be three decades for the UN’s 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which viewed violence against women and girls as a profound violation of human rights. This begs the question, why after all the excellent work that has been done by the aforementioned bodies the abuse seems to continue unabated? Is there a panacea to eliminate this violence?
Could it be that it is due to the fact that man is a spiritual being – spirit, soul and body? (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Could it be that no legislative framework or social work can adequately address the spiritual part of man? Could it be that what we are experiencing is evidence of the depraved nature of sinful man? Could it be that the religious bodies were side-lined in this multisectoral approach to get us near to eliminating this scourge from our nation? Are the efforts of the various bodies in vain? Bad as it is, we cannot afford to throw up our hands in defeat. One sure way to make a difference is for each one to commit to not engage in any form of abuse against women and girls and to join the campaign to end this violence.
God, graciously help us.

Yours faithfully,

Bernel L.H. Wickham