Abused men need protecting too- Anthea L. Smith
Ms Smith will be one of the facilitators of a one-day Domestic Violence session on February 11, 2015. The seminar will be executed by Follow the Movement (FTM) as they partner this year with ZONTA to do their bit in being a beacon to young men living in a society challenged with many social ills.
“I’ll be reaching out to them at all levels because you never know who your audience is,” Ms Smith responded when asked by this news site’s reporter if she would be dealing with the topic from the angle of boys being abused or boys being the abusers.
According to Ms Smith, there is no education that reaches out to boys on the topic of domestic violence “I don’t really see any and we need to realise that domestic abuse goes both ways in terms of gender and I think we need to sensitise the public and our young men to that,” she said.
She said the issue is one that can see boys being abused evenly as being the abuser. “So we want to reach out to both sides of the coin… Sometimes when we talk about domestic violence we look at it mainly in terms of talking to the female victims but I am happy to branch out from that,” Ms Smith said.
It is very rare that men and boys freely or coaxingly come forward to report incidences of them being abused whether by a woman or a fellow male. Men, in many instances, are made a laughing stock when making such reports and are more likely not to be taken seriously especially when abused by a female, often resulting in any serious interventions being denied.
“I’ll just say I understand it for a number of reasons and I just think that the same way we give the protection to the women in terms of privacy those same protection should be given to men so that we ensure they are comfortable coming forward for a number of reasons... I am hoping that we safeguard the women and I hope the men are safeguarded too. Male victims, that is, I am not talking about the abusers.”
Scheduled for February 11, 2015 on the top floor of UP’s Cineplex the ‘Show Love – we are responsible for this generation’, which will take on the format of a seminar, will touch on topics such as prison life, social media, peer pressure, domestic violence, purpose of life, anger management, leadership skills, school dropouts and consequences and tattoos and piercings.
As was done for their forum for young women, FTM has sought out resource personnel that are familiar faces in the VI and who can directly relate to these issues affecting young men.
Among the team known as ‘industry leaders’ are Ms Anthea L. Smith, Mr Julien N. Johnson, Mr Dion K. Crabbe, Pastor Melvin A. Turnbull, Mr Addison ‘Addi’ Nisbet, Mr Roger Mathavious Jr., among others, including personnel from the disciplined and correctional institutions in the territory.
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