-600 persons to be trained
Fourteen religious bodies on Thursday signed a joint communiqué taking a zero tolerance stand against domestic violence and pledging to partner with the social service and law enforcement agencies towards eradicating the factors which lead to the phenomenon.
The bodies which signed on to the communiqué are the: Inter Religious Organization (IRO), Guyana Council of Churches, Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG), Catholic Church, Georgetown Ministers Fellowship, Guyana Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, the United Sadr Islamic Anjumaan, Guyana Maha Kali, Men Empowerment Network (MEN), Assemblies of God, New Testament Church of God and the Science of Spirituality.
Thursday’s meeting at the Office of the President (OP) was a follow up to an initial meeting held two Tuesdays ago where local religious leaders and a delegation of Faith-based leaders from the US met with representatives of the government to discuss domestic violence and the role of the religious community in tackling the problem. At this meeting the leaders indicated their willingness to be part of a training programme geared specifically at equipping them to address the issue but opted not to sign the communiqué at that time expressing a desire to return to their various constituencies first before signing the document. The initiative is being facilitated by the Community Development Officer at OP by Rev Dr Kwame Gilbert.
According to a release from GINA, the document which was signed by the leaders said “we the leaders of Guyana’s Religious Community wish to reiterate that violence in the home goes against all the values that we hold as precious to our faiths and beliefs. We take a stand of Zero tolerance for domestic violence in Guyana, and we will work with the social service and law enforcement agencies towards the eradication of those factors that lead to domestic violence as well as to hold accountable those who continue to espouse and practice violence.” Gilbert told Stabroek News that having signed the communiqué the next step is to have a Standard Training programme specifically designed to sensitize and equip religious leaders with the knowledge to deal with the issue. He said that the training will start in the last week of this month and the intention is to train over 600 leaders across Regions 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10. He said these regions were identified because of their geographic proximity, adding that the intention is to have those persons trained in the first batch train other leaders in the other regions.
The training will be conducted by the New York-based Overseas Faith-based Religious Leaders Council which is led by Dr Cecil Mercurious. Gilbert said that a special effort is being made to make the training module specific to Guyana’s situation.
This initiative has its origin in a promise made by President Bharrat Jagdeo during a trip to the USA in 2004, when he met with members of the Guyanese Diaspora and committed to work with them towards National Security. Jagdeo pledged to develop initiatives which would see faith-based religious leaders collaborating with the government to address social ills and subsequently invited the Overseas Faith-based Religious Council to come to Guyana.
Critics have argued that President Jagdeo himself has been accused of domestic abuse and that this limits his credibility in this matter as he has not answered the allegations.
