NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – A brand new survey has discovered {that a} vital variety of girls in The Bahamas suffered bodily or sexual violence throughout their lifetime and have had challenges accessing healthcare, regulation enforcement, and social companies.
The Inter-American Growth Financial institution (IDB) financed a survey on violence in opposition to girls within the Bahamas performed by Sanigest Worldwide, a Panama-based consulting and administration firm specializing in the social sector, on behalf of the Ministry of Nationwide Safety. It used a computer-assisted phone interview strategy and concerned 1,260 girls between 18 and 64.
It additionally included focus group discussions, spherical tables, and private interviews.
Lead guide Etoile Pinder advised a information convention that about one in 4 girls reported they both obtained bodily violence or sexual violence inside their lifetime. She mentioned of the 272 girls who reported bodily violence, virtually 65 p.c mentioned the violence was extreme and that the bodily violence included being slapped, choked, burned, kicked, or threatened with a weapon.
The survey discovered that about sexual violence, 6.6 p.c of girls reported they had been compelled to carry out degrading or humiliating acts of their lifetime.
There have been a number of components related to girls struggling sexual, bodily, psychological, and financial abuse in relationships, together with getting monetary help from a person, being unable to depend on members of the family, and getting sexually abused as a toddler.
The survey discovered that 44 p.c of girls reported their total well being was poor as a consequence of psychological and emotional abuse, and 43.6 p.c who suffered from psychological abuse reported having a miscarriage.
“Internationally, home violence is likely one of the high causes of dying for pregnant girls. And even right here, we noticed that for the ladies who reported that they’d been bodily abused whereas pregnant,” Pinder mentioned, including, “over 20 p.c of them reported that they’d been punched inside their stomach or kicked inside the space the place the newborn could be”.
The survey famous that 28 p.c of girls reported being victims of bodily and sexual violence for the primary time, 37 p.c had disclosed their abuse to pals, 31 p.c to their moms, and 53 p.c sought assist as a result of they couldn’t take the abuse anymore.
Solely 19 p.c of the ladies advised police they had been affected by violence.
Nationwide Safety Minister Wayne Munroe mentioned the police had established a home violence unit combining policing, non-profit organizations, well being companies, and short-term shelters.
However he acknowledged that the police should do their half in making victims snug to report as an alternative of making an “unfriendly police station” surroundings.
The survey discovered that 53 p.c of girls by no means left their abusers and that multiple in 10 stayed as a result of they’d nowhere to go or relied on their accomplice financially.
“You’re by no means going to influence any person to vary their resolution until you unravel why they’ve made that call after which persuade them that they may contemplate a special resolution,” Munroe mentioned.
“So, if the lady is saying he isn’t going to pay my kids’s faculty charges or the mortgage, if that’s her cause for staying with the person, you now know that you’ve protecting orders that the courtroom can order him to proceed to pay faculty charges and the mortgage. That’s a solution that addresses the rationale that she was tolerating the abuse.”
The research additionally highlighted the restricted variety of home violence shelters within the nation, and Pinder famous that victims on Household Islands, for instance, would not have entry to home shelters.
Social Providers Minister Myles Laroda mentioned the federal government intends to buy the US$500,000 girls’s shelter his monetary 12 months.
“We intend to buy that facility inside the 2023/2024 price range. We utilized for renovations and furnishing in 2024/2025. So, inside the subsequent few months, we could have no less than one facility to deal with these people who could also be subjected to home violence.”
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