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Residents of Barbuda are being encouraged to sign up for the upcoming Barbuda leg of the Men & Women United 2025: Stop Gender Based Violence Walk. for which registration was launched just over a week ago, on Monday, February 17.
The walk is happening in Barbuda on Saturday, March 15th, 2025, beginning at 12:00 pm midday in Codrington. The primary goal of the overall event, which has a component in Antigua and one in Barbuda, is to encourage all citizens to advocate against sexualised and gender-based violence (GBV).
The organisers of the walk, the Integrated Health Outreach Gender Based Violence Coalition (IHO-GBV), say that it is important to capture all residents of the twin island state in the awareness and advocacy initiative now in its second year. Communications Specialist with Integrated Health Outreach (IHO), Kieron Murdoch stated that it was important to ensure that all residents had an opportunity to participate.
Raising awareness helps to remove the stigma and shame and sends a signal to survivors that violence is never their fault.”
In 2024, Barbuda residents came out in their numbers displaying placards advocating against violence and calling for safety and respect for women and girls. Just as with the Antigua leg of the walk which is happening on Saturday, March 8th, 2025, registration for the Barbuds walk on Saturday, March 15th, 2025, is free and participants will be given a free t-shirt to wear on the day.
Register here for the Barbuda walk, March 15th: https://qrco.de/bfjIP7
IHO is a nonprofit organisation and the IHO-GBV Coalition is an arm of IHO. When the Coalition launched the Men & Women United 2025: Stop Gender Based Violence Walk several weeks ago in January, IHO stated in a release that “Gender-based violence is a gross violation of human rights, a public health crisis, an obstacle to sustainable development, and a scourge that our society too often ignores” adding that GBV occurs as a result of “societal norms about men and women’s roles and their value in society”.
The walk is a project implemented by IHO in partnership with the Directorate of Gender Affairs (DoGA) which collaborated with IHO on the project in 2024 and 2025. The initiative is supported by the Equality Fund and Global Affairs Canada.
Although these things are good to build awareness but more needs to be done!
Women are the own greatest enemies. They stay in abusive relationships and claim the man loves them. And abuse is not kick and tump nuh…It is talking down, calling nasty names, neglect, mental abuse is a real thing also. When i see woman with placards raising awarness about abuse i ask myself…which one of them are being abused and refuse to live because the man is the bread provider?
Have you thought about how hard it actually is to leave such relationships? Yes these women know that they are being abused but how many of them are being manipulated into staying? How many of them would be forced to live on the streets with their children if they leave? How many of them have no support from family and friends and are being told ‘he loves u’ ‘dont leave him’ ‘you are all he has’. You say they need to leave but when they do what happens to them? Where do they go? You cannot blame the victims blame the people who put them there
As a woman who has been physically abused and had to leave a comfortable home to shack out by my sister…I can attest to the importance of things like that. But sometimes these walks become a yearly thing that people do. Why do we need to walk to stop violence? I just hope someone listens to us and makes a real change. It’s hard to speak up when you feel scared all the time. Maybe this walk can help others see how serious it is. I wish more people would care and help us fight against this. It shouldn’t be like this, and we deserve better.
You are right, abused victim.Although the walk does make people become aware, more radio and television programs need to be aired. Also posters and fliers need to be circulated regularly not only when you are celebrating the day or the week.. And men, of which I am one, tap bang up the woman and dem. They are human being like us. Would you like someone abusing your mother or daughter?? I don’t think so
Violence in general must be stopped.