As part of the European Union funded Advocating for Justice project, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) staged a Gender Based Violence (GBV) sensitisation session at the Moneague College in St. Ann Jamaica, on Friday March 13, 2020. Over 40 students attended the session which was co-facilitated by CVC Project Coordinator Sannia Sutherland and CVC Technical Programme Officer Sasha Gaye Shaw. The sensitisation session covered areas such as: gender issues and human rights, legal framework, national policies and protocols, personal perceptions, attitudes and beliefs related to violence against women and girls, among others.
CVC Technical Programme Officer Sasha Gaye Shaw says it’s important for future decision makers such as teachers to be exposed to issues surrounding Gender Based Violence. “Gender-Based violence is a major issue of concern in Jamaica right now, we therefore thought it was an excellent idea to engage with students at the tertiary level to raise awareness about this crisis. It was also an opportunity for CVC to support young people in developing strategies to address and combat GBV,” she said.
The session was very interactive and the students were engaged throughout. “We were happy with the level of participation. Some students had a few misconceptions about the various types of GBV, which we were more than happy to clarify,” Shaw noted.
Fourth year Moneague College student Lashane Williams, who actively participated in the session, pointed out that the training was necessary, especially since it targeted students who will be engaging in social work roles soon, “It was a wonderful experience. Especially considering we’re a college that focuses on education and social work, it is good that these sessions are teaching our trainee teachers and social workers about ways they can help mitigate against Gender Based Violence or help those who are facing these situations,” he said.
Meanwhile, another student, Shanae Hamilton felt the CVC training was timely. “The training was very informative and interactive. I enjoyed it. I’m actually doing a research paper so it was very helpful for me right now. Gender Based Violence is something that we often overlook in our society, not just when it comes to females but also to males as victims. That’s just one of the reasons this training was very eye opening for me and most of the other students who attended,” she said.
In the meantime Head of the School of Education at Moneague College, Chelee Kerr, thanked CVC for the session and commended the European Union funded Advocating for Justice Project; “We continuously look for opportunities for our teacher trainees to help them develop holistically. Presently, many of the students are actually engaged in expository writings on domestic violence, so the fact that current information was shared with them, during the training, would have undoubtedly helped them. But also I think some of them learnt that there are many forms of Gender Based Violence of which they were not aware, so they’re now more exposed to that and sensitised. We’re happy that CVC came to share and we hope they will be able to do repeat presentations with other groups and also at some of our other campuses,” she said.
The European Union funded Advocating for Justice project aims to strengthen the role played by civil society in promoting the rule of law and improvement in justice services especially for vulnerable citizens