Help & Shelter warmly celebrates the resilience of Guyanese women
Dear Editor,
On International Women’s Day 2021, Help & Shelter warmly celebrates the resilience of Guyanese women and the tremendous achievements and contributions they have made and continue to make daily in Guyana’s development. We know full well that the entire structure of Guyanese society would cease to function without the unpaid, unrecognized and undervalued but essential care that women do at family and community level. That debt for wages for housework and other caring work owed to women and to the extent of their families, continues to be ignored and Help & Shelter is calling for an immediate remedy for this situation.
The IWD 2021 theme is ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving Equal Futures in a COVID-19 World’. As we reflect on this, we endorse UNDP’s analysis “we have an opportunity to end the exclusion and marginalization of women and girls. But to do that, immediate action is needed. Women must have the opportunity to play a full part in shaping the central decisions currently being made as countries respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. ”Across the world and in Guyana, we know that women were found unsuitable in the lowest paid jobs and services sector, which made them increasingly vulnerable to loss of income during this period of COVID-19 pandemic , thereby increasing poverty among not just a women-led household but all households as income for many households have been reduced or lost. Traditionally, women do the most, if all the housework and other caring, such as cooking, cleaning, washing, caring for children, caring for the sick and elderly, cleaning and cleaning ‘ at the same time as organizing and monitoring children’s home education and education and beneficially occupied during more than a year of social isolation from the school system. COVID-19 has tripled and quadrupled the burden on women, as their responsibilities at home have increased through their unpaid, undervalued and unrecognized caring role. The COVID-19 pandemic has been largely devastated by women’s caring work than Guyanese families may have been. Help & Shelter salutes and thanks the nurses and other health professionals who have worked long and diligently to combat the COVID-19 by addressing the sick and needy especially during last year. “
We also recognize and call for the full and immediate implementation of the Commission’s priority theme on the Status of Women “The full and effective participation and decision-making of women in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality. and empower all women and girls. We call for the rapid implementation of equal pay, the rapid sharing of unpaid care and domestic work and the end of all forms of violence against women. ”
For us these are not just idle words or nice sounding phrases to be thrown around at appropriate times. We demand that they become a reality in women’s lives NOW. The level of women’s leadership and access to effective participation and decision making at the national level remain unacceptable. Women are mere watchers of important decision-making processes, women in the NGO sector were not included in any meaningful national budget consultations, women’s representation on state boards is below 50%, and often does not meet even the 30% requirement that Guyana sign.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Help & Shelter has called for women’s representation on the COVID-19 Task Force to inform decision makers about issues affecting women. Unfortunately, these calls, even though we are half the population, have fallen on deaf ears across the APNU + AFC political administration and the current PPP / C administration. This is not acceptable in 2021 and we call on the political leadership to make every immediate effort to redress this unequal representation and access in line with the IWD 202 theme. This is not an option but an obligation under the international conventions of the the Government has signed on them from Guyana
On the other hand, the emphasis and high profile consultations given to private sector organizations on many levels are difficult to miss. The private sector still lacks gender equality and women’s representation at leadership level. We congratulate the newly formed Women in Business organization, which is a welcome initiative and we at Help & Shelter join with others to support the initiative and look forward to establishing much needed partnerships for development women’s economic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened in Guyana and worldwide, the excessively high level of GBV, which, according to the Women’s Health and Families Survey, affects 1 in 2 women during their lifetime. Guyana’s high level of memicide remains unabated and in some places has even increased. What the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed is a raging pandemic of GBV and domestic violence. The lack and quality of support services for survivors and victims of violence is no longer acceptable and every effort must be made to strengthen and improve them. Help & Shelter has long called for low-cost housing for survivors of violence who need to leave abusive relationships and live lives free from violence and the threat of violence.
Guyana Police’s response to GBV and DV continues to be an issue in far too many areas, including not responding to reported incidents of impending or actual DV attacks on women; failure to arrest offenders; corruption and inappropriate contacts in the course of their duties, and committing DV and sexual offenses while in or out of uniform. The perceived inaccessibility of top police leadership to members of the public, including NGOs, needs to be addressed. At the same time we recognize and salute the many police officers who are efficient and hard working in the exercise of their duties as legal guardians and who have provided protection and service not only to Help & Shelter but to many citizens.
We welcome and note the launch of the 914 national emergency service, unfortunately, most NGOs have not been consulted or had discussions on how this national helpline will integrate with their services. This may not be effective, there must be partnerships across all state and non-state agencies. NGOs like Help & Shelter have set up helpline services and have been working tirelessly on prevention, protection and response to GBV and DV for many years. As a country and as a people we have to find ways to build trust, synergies, partnerships and collaborations. It is no longer acceptable for State agencies to ignore and diminish the work and expertise of the NGO sector. Neither is it effective to divide and favor some organizations over others. This is not a path to success at any level.
Finally, all Guyanese must be alarmed by the appalling behavior of our parliamentarians. To make matters worse, the latest incident, the alleged assault of a female MP by a male MP has further degraded Guyana’s parliament, Guyana’s top citizen forum. How can a country improve if the elected leaders seem incapable of working together? We call on the leadership of all political parties to set a better standard for respectful non-discriminatory civil behavior as parliamentarians. We call on all female parliamentarians to take the lead in finding a way to resolve this unacceptable situation
We also call on the Government to resolve the situation of nurses in Linden. Sexual discrimination and harassment is not acceptable anywhere, anytime and must be eliminated. We call on women’s health and political leadership to find a way to solve this problem in accordance with dignity and not discriminate women on the basis of their gender.
We conclude by recognizing and supporting the many initiatives taken by the current government towards the empowerment and upliftment of women, communities and families and for the continued support of Help and Asylum services. As always we are ready to work with everyone to promote Guyanese women, children and society.
Correctly,
Danuta Radzik
Colin Marks
Linda Hustler-Gray
Pamela Nauth
Josephine Whitehead
For Help and Asylum