Ladyville Police 16 Days of Activism With Focus on Gender-Based Violence Awareness

Activities for 16 Days continued today as the Minister of Human Development and Families, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia did a launch at the Ladyville Police Station in her constituency.  The 16 Days against Gender Based Violence begins on Monday, November 25, and is an international call to end violence against women and girls.  Gender-based violence continues to be a pressing issue in Belize, and each year dozens of women fall victim. Minister Dolores spoke on the campaign’s importance and why it is pivotal to raise awareness of the issue. 

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “I really want to take this opportunity to commend them for having this brief ceremony to highlight the coming of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which is from the 25th of November to the 12th of December, I think. So therefore, we have gathered here today and I gave a short remarks, and also Sergeant Wallace, highlighting that we have to practice what we preach when we say zero tolerance and no excuse for gender-based violence. We know that this is an issue that pervades the entire society. And all that we can do, sometimes we might feel that it’s not enough and that we should give up, but the message today is we must never give up. And again, for the Ladyville Police Formation to be highlighting this issue and raising the flag of no excuse, the orange color, and we have on our orange t-shirts today. It means a lot that we are internalizing the fact that each of us must play our role to reduce and to stamp out intimate partner violence, domestic violence, gender-based violence, whatever we call it.”

Reporter: A lot of persons would have this perspective that recently a lot more cases of domestic violence are occurring. But do you think that more of them are occurring or is it more awareness to the issue? Bringing light to the issue? 

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “It’s difficult to say. It’s difficult to say if it’s more or if it’s just more reporting, you know? Because when you have cases of rape, for example, there may not be the amount of reporting that we would want to see, but it doesn’t mean that it is not occurring. So I would like to encourage people out there to come to the law, come to law enforcement. The ladies and the gentlemen here at the station are serious, and I would like for people to come forward. Let’s not hide it. We don’t want to hide. We must bring these issues forward. And yes, we have to work with our communities and families, but it is always with a view to maintaining the peace and having less violence.”

The sixteen days will continue with events countrywide, bringing the issue to the forefront and urging collective action to create a society where women and girls thrive without fear.