These past few weeks cases of Domestic violence have been in the headlines and the staff at Saint Catherine's Academy have decided to take a more active approach to support these women who are victims of abuse and domestic violence. They have decided to create a task force by engaging with police, social workers and safe houses to provide access to more resources for those who respond and deal with these cases on a first hand basis. We spoke with their principal about it today.
Salome Tillet, Principal of SCA
"One of the critical concerns of the sisters of mercy is concern for women it is part of what we are compelled to teach our young women and it is part of what we are compelled to advocate for, and in light of the recent spate of horrible instances of crime against women we thought it would be important for us as an established institution to pool our resources, with the many organizations and women institutions that are in the field working right now and see what we can do to add our resources our services to the work that is being done."
"We hope to empower women ultimately we hope that Belize becomes a place where the families can be a warm, loving and safe place where children feel that they belong and they come to school having the confidence that comes from knowing they are safe at home."
"There are many systems in place already and organizations that work with women and we at SCA want to do our part to collaborate with them to fill in the gaps and to help where we can."
Myeisha Jones, School Councillor, SCA
"From the conversation what we gathered is that advocacy is important we need to be able to, like what our principal said to fill in the gaps that are missing in the system."
Paula Ruiz, School Councillor, SCA
"As was highlighted there are already, structures and processes in place however that doesn't mean that there could never be improvement that can be made and with our philosophy being always trying to inspire persons and bring about the change that we want to see that is really what drove our mission and motivation that we want to work on, this new program that it is that we are trying to start up."
