Marches against violence to take place International Women’s Day
THE groups Jamaican Mad House Charity and Jamaica Against Violence, will tomorrow, International Women’s Day, stage marches around the country to protest against the growing cases of violence against women.
Founder of both groups, Shena Carty, said that the marches are being planned to give citizens the platform to stand up and speak out against violence against women in the society.
The Jamaican-born American citizen and humanitarian, in her appeal for men, women and children to participate, said it is now time to stand up for peace following the many stories of deaths because of domestic violence.
“Everyone needs to take a stand; people need to start talking up [as we have] to stop the culture where we mind our own business. It’s everybody’s business… so why wait until it affects you to come and join in the fight against violence,” Carty said.
“If you are not going to stand up for peace, what are you going to stand up for?” she asked.
According to Carty, the marches will be staged in every parish and will all culminate with a rally, featuring different speakers.
“We have a lot of people working on this. It’s like a grass-roots thing for regular people. It’s not a fancy thing where we march and at the end we have a party.
“We are going to talk up against the violence, against men having relationships with young girls, the pastors who are doing this, the teachers, the politicians,” she said.
A psychologist, Carty said that noticed that there were recent marches held in Kingston and in Montego Bay, but that the entire island should be involved.
“You can’t just have people in Kingston and Montego Bay fighting for the whole nation; everybody needs to stand up for themselves and speak up for themselves and say enough is enough,” she added.
Carty made it clear, however, that the march is not just for violence against women but also for violence against all.
“It is at a point now where it is becoming the norm; people are so desensitised and it’s bothersome because it’s not normal to live in a society where violence is OK.
“We have allowed too many things to go by, too many inappropriate things, and too many unacceptable things. It is now at the boiling point and I think at this point everyone needs to take a stand for themselves and stand up for the future of the country,” said Carty.
“This place used to be like the best place on earth, the laid-back place, the chill place, the place to go to have fun, now people are, like, I am not going to Jamaica, why? To get kill, to get rob and we don’t want that, we don’t want that stigma. We want people to say we are going to Jamaica to eat some good food, smoke some good weed and go to some parties,” she said.
There will be two marches in the Corporate Area, beginning at 8:00 am — one starting in Half-Way-Tree and the other starting at Manor Park. Both will end at the Emancipation Park, where a rally will be held.
People who want to participate can visit Carty’s Facebook page for details on the march in their parish.
