FALMOUTH, Trelawny — In a show of solidarity, singer/ songwriter I-maa-ra gathered with a small group of women in front of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation building, which also houses the Trelawny Parish Court, this morning to participate in ‘Thursday in Black’ campaign to end gender-based violence.

I-maa-ra, who is agitating for constitutional changes to safeguard women and children against abuse, argues that currently the law “still don’t have enough teeth to administer justice to the victims of crime”.

“We need some constitutional changes, that is what we need more than anything else,” the entertainer said.

One protestor, Beverly Edward Stewart, called for lawmakers to come to the reality that gender-based violence is serious.

“People who are making laws and changing laws, we need to appeal to them and they need to know that this is a serious issue,” Stewart underscored.

“I am just participating in this protest that is organised by the Institute of Gender Developlemt Studies at the UWI. So we know that it is important to come and let our voices heard because we have seen oftentimes that the issue of abuse is just brushed under the carpet for the most part and I think that it has become very serious now.”

Eunice Hanshaw, chairman of the People’s National Party Women’s Movement in the Trelawny Northern constituency explained that: We want a stop we want a complete stop to we need to start somewhere so we are starting here today”.

Horace Hines