The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

A TROUBLING United Nations statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten at some point in her life if current trends continue prompted a global campaign to end violence against women. Every year on February 15, men and women rise in solidarity for the One Billion Rising.

Bahamians joined scores of people all over the world on Valentine’s Day to rise, strike and dance for peace. The Bahamas Rising event held on Rawson Square by the Bahamas Against Sexual Violence & Child Abuse (BASV&CA) featured performing artist Julien Believe and a group of dancers who took over Rawson’s Square with a flash mob.

The event also served to raise awareness about the much needed Sexual Offences Court that the Bahamas Crisis Centre has called for.
“I have heard of instances where victims were minors and an adult family member was charged with the sexual offense. It’s heartbreaking to not only hear of these occurrences, but to then learn that other family members were unwilling to attend the hearing with the children because of shame. Crisis Centre volunteers or social workers had to be appointed to accompany these minors to court,” said Terneille Burrows, organiser of the Bahamas Rising event.

Ms Burrows said she hoped the outcry would not fall on deaf ears but provoke those in power to establish a Sexual Offences Court.
“It is also our hope that victims of abuse will no longer be afraid to speak out, seek help and know that there is a support system in place. We want perpetrators of these crimes to understand that we will not sit back and allow such atrociousness to go unmentioned or unpunished,” said Ms Burrows.

“The establishment of a court will cut down on the long periods of time between when a charge is made an a trial begins. We would like to ensure that the Bahamian public is aware and continues to lend support to this and other important issues that affect the country at large,” she said.

As a volunteer of the Crisis Centre and a founding member of the Bahamas Against Sexual Violence & Child Abuse, Ms Burrows said she could not pass the opportunity to host a local event that could help bring awareness to the issue.

“Bahamian women, men, boys and girls should rise to show the power we have in numbers. We should rise above the tendency our society seems to have of brushing things under the carpet: sexual abuse, harassment, molestation, rape. This movement exists to do away with the old school shame and usher in a new breed of Bahamians that will not tolerate this or any form of violence,” said Ms Burrows.