Over 600 members of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Rastafarian and Bahai faiths will converge at various locations around the country between Oct.25 to Oct.29 to deal with the troubling issue of domestic violence in a training session. According to the Government of Guyana, a New York – based inter-faith counselor and specialist on the issue of domestic violence will spearhead the sessions along with a ten-man team from New York, led by Dr. Cecil ‘Brev’ Mercurius.
It is expected that this initiative, which is part of the interventionist strategies against domestic violence and another aspect of the Administration’s work with the religious communities in addressing social concerns, would provide training to the 600 religious members who would, in turn, be equipped to extend the training further afield.
Moreover,the Government stated that they would become part and parcel of what the Administration intends to operationalise at the local level, a social network involving the religious groups, communities, local representatives of law enforcement agencies, Community Policing Groups, Neighbourhood Police, and representatives of Government agencies and other State agencies that provide services in the various communities.”
In each community, such a collection of service providers would be functioning to bring support and to give counselling to the members of the communities.
Local Counsellors have indicated in a survey that almost daily there is the problem of abuse in the home, particularly in the rural areas where people have limited access to counsellors and a police force not equipped to deal with the scourge of domestic violence. Just the other day a tractor operator who was heavily intoxicated, beat his wife and proceeded to drive the tractor overboard which cost him his life.
