THIS society needs to promote equality and respect as hallmarks for strong and healthy relationships, suggested Sabrina Mowlah-Baksh, general manager of the NGO Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV).
Her comments came on the evening of September 18, hours after Afiya Adams, the mother of three from Freeport who was set on fire at her home on September 14, died.
Adams, 41, died around midday at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, where she had been in a critical condition since the attack.
Mowlah-Baksh told Newsday that many survivors of intimate partner violence suffer in silence. In contrast, the experiences of others are known either by family, neighbours, friends or members of the community.
"How do we fix it? It requires multiple actions by a range of actors. From a preventative perspective, culturally, we need to promote equality and respect as hallmarks for strong and healthy relationships," Mowlah-Baksh said in a statement.
"Equality and respect remove the need for one partner to exercise power and control in a relationship. Violence must not be visioned as the only way to resolve conflicts or to discipline."
She said the tragic news came days before CADV hosts the second edition of its Savannah Lap event on September 21 at the Queen's Park Savannah to raise awareness about abuse.
She said victims commonly would have experienced various types of abuse before being brutally attacked or killed.
"From a response point of view, all agencies tasked with providing protection, justice and services to survivors must treat every report with the urgency it requires. The responses to this type of violence should not be cultural or systemic but professional," she said.
"We simply cannot afford to ignore this issue and hope it will go away. It cannot be just the handful of organisations who do this work carrying the burden. We all have a responsibility to stop this."
Mowlah-Baksh said CADV recognises the collective action required for this to happen.
"This is why we will continue to keep this on the front burner as a national issue. The Savannah Lap Event was conceptualised precisely because we cannot afford to stop the advocacy for this type of violence to end," she said.
"The normalisation of this violence has to cease immediately. We continue to encourage survivors to seek support. Alongside this, we also continue to encourage friends, colleagues, families and communities to support survivors experiencing violence. They cannot do it alone."
She emphasised that a support system is critical for victims to cope with existing forms of abuse or exit violent relationships.
She encouraged people to call CADV at 624-0402.
On September 14, around 5 am, Adams, of Maraj Avenue, off Mission Road, returned home from a family birthday celebration in Golconda, San Fernando.
The suspect, a close male relative, and Adams argued, and was doused with a flammable substance, set her on fire, and left. He was also burned, but his injuries were not as severe as Adam's.
Adams lived
