That National Dialogue on Domestic Violence (Part 2)

Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Voice is inviting the First Lady to become lead partner in the Lay Counsellor Training Programme to be launched next year. With the First Lady in charge, this programme can truly be national in scope, and result in gatekeepers being in all communities — individuals who can proactively tackle all forms of abuse and suicide.
Also, The Caribbean Voice is considering a national campaign to address domestic/intimate partner violence and femicide. Elements of this campaign are expected to include flyers (200,000 flyers) and posters (10,000), as well as focus groups across Guyana supported by the lay counsellor programme, our ongoing workshops, information dissemination and advocacy.
Again, with the First Lady as lead partner in this effort, tremendous success can be achieved.
We also urge the First Lady to include a module on mental health in all training programmes planned by her office. This would be more cost effective than separate mental health training. Besides, given that upwards of 200,000 Guyanese suffer from one or more mental health-related issues; that both suicide and all forms of abuse have mental health components; and that hundreds of thousands of other Guyanese have to deal with loved ones who suffer from mental health issues, mental health training becomes a critical necessity.
The bottom line is that much of what we have had so far is rhetoric, pageantry, photo ops, and similar arid activities that waste scarce resources without impacting the issue in any fundamental way. So please, Madam First Lady, please do use this National Dialogue opportunity to start a process of concrete change.
As a woman, wife and mother, you can far better empathise with the plight of our women folk; and as the First Lady, you have the capacity and scope to transform talk into action; not piece-meal, selectively and ad hoc, but concertedly, nationally and continually.

Sincerely,
The Caribbean Voice