The Equality and Justice Alliance (EJA) is a 2-year pan-Commonwealth project that aims to advance equality and equal protection before the law in order to secure the rights for Commonwealth citizens without discrimination. The programme focuses on reform of laws that discriminate against women and girls and LGBT+ people, adopting an intersectional approach. It covers the 7 islands of the OECS and Barbados.
The EJA will work on 3 overlapping objectives:
Three areas of focus for legal reform have been determined. (1) Abortion Law Reform, headed by Taitu Heron, Head of Department at WAND (Women and Development Unit), University of the West Indies, Barbados; (2) Anti-Discrimination, headed by Kenita Placide, Director of ECADE (Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality), St. Lucia; and Mental Health and Well-Being, Hazel Da Breo, Director, Sweet Water Foundation, Grenada.
The EJA is governed by the Commonwealth Trust, U.K., Kalaidoscope, U.K. and ECADE, St. Lucia. Along with the three leads named above, other participating Eastern Caribbean NGOs and Agencies, all gathered as of the first Regional convening in St. Vincent, March 2019, are:
CAFRA – Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action.
DOMCHAP – Caribbean HIV/AIDS Partnership Dominica.
ECADE – Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality Inc.
GRENCHAP – Caribbean HIV/AIDS Partnership Grenada.
HERSTOIRE – St. Lucia.
RUVSL – Raise Your Voice St. Lucia.
SMU – Suriname Men United, Suriname.
SWF – Sweet Water Foundation, Grenada.
VINCICHAP – Caribbean HIV/AIDS Partnership St. Vincent
WAND – Women and Development, University of the West Indies, Barbados.
WAR – Women against Rape, Antigua & Barbuda.
None in Three was a two-year action-oriented project funded by the EU and implemented in Barbados and Grenada in partnership with the Sweet Water Foundation. Supported by national and regional agencies, the project was designed to complement existing domestic violence programmes in the region and also to contribute to change at the international level. Taking its name from the fact that one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime, the project challenged the idea that violence to women is an inevitability.
Our aims and objectives were:
To increase access to justice and services for especially marginalised women
To engage with men and youth about what needs to be done
To prevent violence through education
During the Ni3 project, 1378 children (9-17 years) from Barbados and Grenada took part in a survey on lived experiences of violence, within their homes and communities. The survey design, implementation and analyses were directed by Professor Daniel Boduszek whose team included: Dr Hazel Da Breo, Dr Ena Trotman Jemmott, Dr Dominic Willmott, Dr Nikki Sherretts and Dr Agata Debowska. This, the first such survey of its kind in the region, revealed a high prevalence of co-occurring violence (sexual, physical and emotional) with children being the direct targets of victimisation in many instances and also experiencing secondary trauma through witnessing abuse to others.
Jesse – a serious computer game as an intervention to change
To raise awareness of the impact of domestic violence, to increase empathy and to promote non-violent problem solving skills, the Ni3 project created Jesse, a computer game, as an education intervention that can be used with children and also in professional training. Created by Professor Eunice Ma and Dave Smith, with additional input from Ramy Hammady, trials of Jesse were conducted in Barbados and Grenada. Professor Daniel Boduszek designed the trial procedures and Dr Ena Trotman Jemmott and Dr Hazel Da Breo implemented the trial along with other Ni3 representatives, including Sharon-Rose Gittens and Shakiel Stoute who were featured Ni3 project team members (see below). The trial results, released mid-January, provided irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of the game in changing negative attitudes that promote the social acceptance of violence and also in increasing empathy (this is central to developing healthy interpersonal relationships). What is required, of course, is that families, schools, churches and communities are able to help young people sustain these changes and that they, too, become changed.
Download the game, reports, and find out more: http://www.noneinthree.org/barbados-and-grenada/
In partnership with UNICEF, Action for Children, and University of Huddersfield, Sweet Water Foundation assisted in carrying out a 6-island socially transformative action research project into “Perceptions of, Attitudes to, and Opinions on Child Sexual Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean”.
The study emerged out of the UNICEF/Governments of the Eastern Caribbean Programme of Cooperation 2008-2011 and was a joint programming initiative (UNICEF/UNIFEM together with stakeholders from the region) aimed at reducing sexual violence against children. The study was partially funded by the Department for International Development (DfID) to support the inclusion of countries designated as British Overseas Territories.
This was a landmark study, being the first time that a comprehensive investigation of child sexual abuse had been carried out across several Caribbean countries. These were Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Kitts & Nevis.
Read the full report at https://www.unicef.org/easterncaribbean/Child_Sexual_Abuse_Publication.pdf
Principals on the project included, Dr. Adele Jones, Dr. Ena Trottmann-Jemmott, Dr. Priya Maharaj, and Dr. Hazel Da Breo.
Dr. Adele Jones
Dr. Ena Trottmann-Jemmott
Dr. Hazel Da Breo
Dr. Priya Maharaj
