West Kingston residents 'break free' of violence
Published:Friday | November 19, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer
Judy* was 12 years old when she became pregnant and had an abortion.
A year later, the high school student found herself in a predicament and she could not go home.
She showed up at the Tivoli Gardens Police Post and, through gentle encouragement from Detective Sergeant Ava Lindo, Judy opened up.
"The reason for not going home was that she had a curfew and had transportation difficulties getting home from school," Lindo said.
"So she was late and if she had gone home, she would have been beaten," she added, sharing the story of an emotionally, physically and sexually abused girl with The Gleaner yesterday.
Police and citizens, working together in a partnership for safer communities, put on a domestic-violence intervention training programme under the theme 'It's Time to Break Free of Violence and Abuse'.
The two-day workshop was launched yesterday at the Denham Town Com-munity Centre.
Three two-day workshops were scheduled for yesterday and today, November 25-26 and December 2-3.
Sixty participants and social intervention officials are meeting to discuss the cycle of abuse that perpetuates domestic violence.
Orville Simmonds, the community action coordinator of the Citizen Security and Justice Programme, was also there and offered his view on abuse in the home.
Reflection
Simmonds told those in attendance that he passed a fight a day earlier between a man and a woman, which caused him to reflect.
"It made me wonder to what extent (...) and to what range do we deal with (domestic violence)," Simmonds said, curious about the nature of the relationship between the individuals.
Novelette Grant, assistant com-missioner of police and manager of the Strategic Review Implementation Team, noted it was important to establish a network of support, which she described as a "multi-agency approach", to the endless cycle of "reporting and withdrawing" that goes beyond law enforcement.
"If we (as police) understand why that happens, we'll show greater empathy," she told the audience.
Grant stressed that communities cannot be safe if homes are unsafe, at which a participant responded with a murmured "true".
Participants from west Kingston said they were looking forward to being engaged by the workshop.
They also became involved with a skit put on by the Sistren Theatre Collective and Hannah Town drama group by responding to the theatrical events as they unfolded.
"Make the money stretch," the character, 'Jeff', shouted at the mother of his child. "Make man have food fi nyam."
"Mhmm," an audience member began, "you nyam too much, that's why you shirt tight."
When one of the characters was on her way to the police station to report the physical abuse the child's mother inflicted on Jeff's mother, the audience expressed disapproval.
"Report Jeff too," a woman said.
Jonathan Burke, manager of the Jamaica Violence Prevention Peace and Sustainable Development Programme - a joint initiative between the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of National Security, spoke to partnership and sharing data among social and government agencies, which is crucial to development.
"We're trying to move away from talking and actually doing. It's easy to talk," he said.
*Name changed