Spotlight/WMW Jamaica Partnership Impacts Vulnerable Groups
/Jamaicans’ competitive spirit and abundant talent, means we gravitate to “spotlights”. We revel in accolades on the track, in entertainment and business. However, in the same way we shine like beacons we can equally banish issues like gender-based violence (GBV) to hidden corners.
The chronic silence on important GBV issues is why since 2021 WMW Jamaica joined forces with The Spotlight Initiative (SI). WMW’s SI projects have worked to bring important GBV issues out of the shadows. The Spotlight Initiative (SI) is a global project of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) worldwide. SI in Jamaica prioritized three key areas within the overall focus on Family Violence (FV) and Violence Against Women and Girls.
Those areas include:-
1) Child Sexual Abuse;
2) Intimate Partner Violence;
3) Discrimination Against Vulnerable Groups
As part of The SI’s Pillar Three (3) priorities (Prevention and Social Norms) WMW worked to support the Ministries of Education and Youth (MOEY) and Health and Wellness (MOHW) to train youth/adolescent serving personnel, including Health and Family Life Educators (HFLE)/teachers how to effectively integrate GBV issues in their work. Since many out-of-school youth benefit from educational and social support services through civil society entities, a cross section of youth facilitators were also included. Teachers, educators, health care practitioners received multi-day training series and access to innovative training materials on ways to serve and protect Jamaica’s youth/adolescents regarding GBV.
An exciting training tool designed under the project is the GBV Activity Prevention Pack [insert hyperlink]. The Pack is a colorful one-stop-shop for educators and youth facilitators to find a treasure trove for comics, word puzzles, video resources and statistics all focused on GBV and youth in Jamaica. Historically, WMW Jamaica has always used art, music and popular culture for GBV prevention programmes/initiatives to create simple and relatable materials to discuss GBV’s complexities. For the SI Project WMW Jamaica invited eager HFLE teachers to collaborate on shaping materials that would best meet their classroom needs. WMW used teacher insight and support to create an engaging and creative resource. Since 2021, through implementing over 660 hours of training WMW has reached over 151 MOEY staff, 55 MOHW staff and 20+ civil society actors.
In 2023 training and interventions focused on GBV and children with disabilities. The Activity Pack was upgraded to include a comic, “Chrissy & Jermaine” whose main character is a young deaf girl who learns to stand up to her boyfriend and uses her voice to advocate for inclusion. In Nov 2023 to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women & Girls, Parents Month the WMW Team facilitated an invigorating session to launch “Chrissy & Jermaine” to the world at the Randolph Lopez School of Hope which is one of the largest and oldest school serving children with intellectual disabilities in Jamaica.
