Rape culture, child marriage, genital mutilation, and other similar practices have plagued women and girls throughout history. As atrocious as they are, they continue to be prevalent worldwide – enshrined by many cultures and societies as “traditions” or simply as the way things are done.

For example, in some parts of Ghana if a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock, she is stripped naked, carried to every corner of the village and publicly shamed. In other cultures, the rape of girls, some as young as one day old, is considered a cure for men who contracted the HIV virus. According to Unicef more than 800 million women and girls have suffered from harmful cultural practices.

TT has had its own journey with these types of cultural practices. Up until recently, child marriage was a tradition among some religions in TT. It was only in June 2017 that Parliament unanimously voted to outlaw the practice and made 18 the legal age of marriage.

Locally, Mtima Solwazi, general manager and founder of the Oral Tradition Roots Foundation, through the US Embassy’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF), is engaging girls and boys to develop a messaging campaign to combat harmful cultural practices.

A message for youths, by youths

The project is called GPS EmpoWOMEN Global Summit, Solwazi said in a conversation with Newsday. The summit involved countries from three regions – the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. The Caribbean was represented by TT and the Bahamas, Africa was represented by Kenya and Ghana and South Asia was represented by India and Sri Lanka.

Solwazi said the six countries participated in the International Visitors Leadership Programme (ILVP) in 2016. In January, this year, the embassy announced an open competition for past alumni of US government-sponsored exchange programmes, such as the ILVP, which would accept proposals for projects that promote governance, peace and security in each region and expand on the skills developed by participants.

Alumni from the six countries came together and decided to address the issue of harmful cultural practices through the global summit.

[caption id="attachment_931952" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Participants in the EmpoWOMEN Global Summit involved countries from three regions -- the Caribbean, Africa, and South Asia. The Caribbean was represented by Trinidad and Tobago, Africa by Kenya and Ghana and South Asia was represented by India and Sri Lanka.[/caption]

“The six of us decided to do something together and this just unfolded,” Solwazi said. “In these six countries some of the cultures are different and others are similar, but we all face the same challenge. What is happening in a village or behind closed doors in TT is also happening in India, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Kenya, Bahamas and other countries around the world where women suffer from sexual violence.”

Each country had a focus group of 25 people between the ages of 13 and 19 – in TT there were 20 girls and five boys – that disc