Grange moves to shelter battered women

Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter

The Government is to establish a new facility in Kingston to accommodate women who have been victims of abuse.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Olivia Grange, said the Government has already acquired the property and is now working out administrative details before refurbishing the facility.

Grange, however, said she could not disclose the location of the property as the legal documents had not yet been sorted out. The minister did not give a time line for the completion of the shelter, nor did she provide cost estimates for the facility.

"We have secured the property in Kingston where we will be operating a state-run shelter for abused women to ensure we have adequate facilities to serve the area," she said.

The minister was speaking at the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women function held Thursday at the St Andrew Parish Church Hall under the theme 'Changing the Culture to End Violence Against Women'.

One of three

Grange said the facility is one of three to be constructed across the island.

To date, the Women Crisis Centre, which has branches across the island, is the only shelter that offers services such as counselling to women who are victims of abuse, but Grange said it was not enough.

She said Food for the Poor and the United Nations Population Fund have committed to assist with the refurbishing exercise, but added there was need for private-sector organisations to assist in bringing the project to fruition.

In the meantime, Grange painted a worrying trend of violence against women in Jamaica, saying despite what was believed to be the underreporting of such crimes, the figures continued to be high.

Police statistics indicated that in 2009, a total of 503 women were victims of carnal abuse, 672 were raped, 163 women were victims of shootings, 160 were murdered, and 1,162 were victims of robbery.

Grange added that the Government has taken critical steps to end the scourge. Among the actions taken is the ratification of the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women.

"Under these conventions, we have agreed to pursue, by all appropriate means and without delay, policies to prevent, punish, and eradicate such violence," she said.

"As Government, we are engaging men as partners to end violence against our women and girls, recognising men have been part of the problem and must be an important part of the solution," she added.

Meanwhile, Douglas Orane, CEO of GraceKennedy Limited, encouraged men to play their role in society by protecting the females and end the scourge of violence, which is plaguing some females.

Quoting figures from the reproductive health survey published by the Ministry of Health in 2009, which shows that approximately 20 per cent of girls ages 15-19 years old reported having been forced into sexual intercourse at some stage of their lives, Orane said it was incredible, and should not be accepted as the norm.

"I want to appeal to Jamaican men who are emotionally, psychologically, physically, or sexually abusive to women to break this practice and ask for help," he said.