One in every three women you meet is traumatised by violence. This is evident from a frightening World Health Organisation (WHO) statistic: more than a third of all women worldwide (35 per cent) have been attacked violently by their intimate partners, or have experienced sexual violence from a non-partner. Globally, the WHO tells us, intimate partners commit as many as 38 per cent of womens' murders.
Far from being a private matter, domestic violence is a major public health problem affecting whole families and societies over time, say experts. And although men are said to commit a lot of the violence, women can be guilty too, and victims can include children, old people, and anyone living in the home of an abuser. Feelings of shame and secrecy within families and communities often mask the problem until it's too late.
In the Caribbean, of those women who have been attacked by partners, 28 to 64 per cent of them do not even seek help or speak to anyone about the attacks. This is according to a 2013 report by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) cited in a March 2014 research note by The Ministry of the People and Social Development.
In T&T, between 2009 and 2012, almost 12,000 domestic violence applications were made in the Magistrate's Court, according to a report by a group called the NGO Caribbean Development Foundation (NCDF), which recently completed a five-year Violence Against Women campaign.
The campaign involved consulting a wide range of NGOs from Jamaica, T&T, Suriname and other Caribbean countries, and resulted in a report called The Cascadia Protocol, submitted to regional governments. A main recommendation was the need for trained Domestic Violence Units in the police service.
The NCDF reports that NGOs want governments to listen to their advice, and make better use of their skills. Such groups have been working directly with domestic violence victims for a long time, and have the experience, commitment and flexibility to be more effective than well-intentioned but often inflexible and limited government departments, says the NCDF.
Groping in the dark: The need for data
"I can't speak for anyone, but for myself, I feel we're all just groping in the dark. Every now and then, we become outraged when we hear about a particular case in the media; there's a lot of furore; and then it dies down. There is no systematic way of collecting data. The data is fragmented: you might get some from the magistrates court, from social workers, but nothing is pooled and analysed," said accountant and social justice activist Carol Daniel in a Guardian interview at the NCDF's office in Tunapuna.
Carol Daniel founded the NCDF in 2007 to help develop capacity of a range of NGOs in the region. And she's passionate about the Cascadia Protocol recommendations, especially the need to take domestic violence seriously enough to measure it properly.
"We need to collect data in a systematic way, from different sectors–health, police, judiciary, from across the board; and have one body collate that data and analyse it. Then we'd have a better understanding of what we're dealing with," she said.
Bring a Domestic Violence Unit
"The most important recommendation for me is the one that relates to the police: the creation of a Domestic Violence Unit," said Daniel.
"This is not a new idea...There have been experiments, but I would like to see it fully implemented. More manpower needs to be put towards the issue of domestic violence."
"Also important for me is the ability to charge a suspect without direct input from the victim," said Daniel, "so that the police can go ahead and build a case and not have to rely exclusively on the victim to testify. Because often the victim is intimidated, her livelihood may be affected.
"I would like to see them be able to charge a suspect without relying 100 per cent on the victim to testify....The police may stand a better chance of going through the system and completely prosecuting someone and having that person pay for the crime. If it is totally dependent on the victim, there's a strong chance that the victim will not testify when that time comes–and the case falls apart."
Don't reinvent the wheel,ask those in the field already
Daniel echoes the calls of other regional NGOs for governments to harness the NGO sector better.
"I see an attempt by some government departments to do the work of the NGO sector. But I think the NGO sector is best placed to work with victims. NGOs do it because they are very committed to it. It's not just an avenue to earn a living. Many of us don't earn a living from this work. We do it because we are convinced it needs to be done. We make sacrifices in order to do it."
"A system needs to be set up where governments funnel money to the sector and treat the sector like an equal partner in working on social issues, rather than embarking on it themselves," said Daniel.
She said victims need sensitivity and support, and "they need someone to be there for them at three in the morning; government departments can't do that. For them to attempt to do that is to waste the taxpayer's money."
"So the sector needs to be resourced. It will work out as an economic advantage for governments to resource the sector and just let them go ahead and do it."
Deal with violencein the family and in men
A key part of dealing with domestic violence is taking a look at our home behaviour. This includes acknowledging the violence, anger management problems, and culture of entitlement of many West Indian men, who often have prejudiced attitudes about the role of women. It also involves dealing with the destructive effect of violence on children, which can be deep and lasting.
Daniel believes violence in the home impacts national crime figures: "I think if young people grow up in a home that is violent, they are desensitised, and they are more likely to commit crime in the long term." She argues for an approach to crime-fighting which addresses violence in the family.
To address violence by men towards their family, the NCDF held a workshop last December, A Call to Men, led by UK psychologist Jonathan Fowler. The workshop trained participants in how to rehabilitate men with a history of violence within the family, using an approach that has been successful in the US and elsewhere. The NCDF hopes to bring Fowler back to the Caribbean for more "one-on-one" training with individual NGOs.
"I think here in T&T, we have come to the point where women are dying. And it didn't suddenly happen overnight where a spouse wakes up and decides: 'Today I'm going to kill you.' It's a pattern of abuse that ends in death," says Daniel.
"I don't think violence against women is a woman's issue or a man's issue. It's a social and national issue. It's a pattern of family life and quality of life that impacts the level of crime in the country."
�2 TOMORROW: Summary of the Cascadia Protocol
Who is Carol Daniel?
Carol Daniel was born in the UK to West Indian students (her mother is Bajan, her father is from T&T). The family grew up in T&T, in Mount Lambert.
Daniel studied sociology and history for her first degree, and says she got into the financial world by accident: her uncle owned his own business in Barbados, of which Price Waterhouse were his auditors, and one evening he told her: "Price Waterhouse needs audit trainees. You start on Monday."
She went on to become a financial accountant, working at Deloitte and PwC (Price Waterhouse) in Barbados. While there, she joined a small Amnesty International group which piqued her interest in social justice issues.
She left Barbados in 1997 and moved to London, to gain international experience in her profession. After a year of audit work, she specialised in England's well developed, respected NGO sector, doing financial consulting and project management work for NGOs there, and doing some more work with Amnesty International.
On her return to the Caribbean in 2007, Daniel quickly became involved with NGOs here, combining her financial training with her social justice interests. She founded the NGO Caribbean Development Foundation (NCDF) in 2007, to help small charities and non-governmental groups to develop.
Many of these groups suffer from scarce resources, skills, labour, and low support from regional governments. The NCDF works mainly to help such groups become stronger, through helping them to create work plans, campaign strategies and implement regional campaigns.
The NCDF currently works with human rights groups (including Amnesty International in Jamaica, Bahamas and Barbados) and many groups fighting against domestic violence in the region (including Families in Action and the Rape Crisis centre in Trinidad, and many women's shelters in Trinidad, Jamaica and elsewhere).
The NCDF board consists of: president and founder–Carol Daniel; vice president–Witek Hebanowski; corporate secretary–Sr Mary Claire Zitman; and legal director–Alice Daniel.
�2 MORE INFO: The NCDF is based at 42 Balthazar Street, Tunapuna. Tel: 792-2089. Email: contact@ngocaribbean.org. Website: www.ngocaribbean.org