How do you eat an elephant?  Bite by bite!  So it is with the challenge you describe. 

Creating awareness that this behaviour is not acceptable is an essential 1st step in the process.  This is easier said than done since Jamaicans are so highly sexualized and at an early age.

OK so perhaps it would be useful to start with tweens (8 to 12 year olds) boys & girls in small groups of 8 to 10 and to discuss the issues in a focus group kind of way & setting--informal.  This exploratory step will give you information to guide the next step.  Talking to the men may not be as productive since they are perhaps steeped in their beliefs and behaviours.

I don't mind sitting with you to explore and brainstorm on this matter which is of quite some concern to me as well.

Regards,

Marcia

Hi Danielle,

In response to your first question;  I've noticed that when these issues are dealt with in a larger framework that addresses masculinity and the issues we are having with boys and men in the region persons are more willing to address all forms of violence as equally destructive to society. In one training participants acknowledged that all forms of GBV especially VAW were extremely important and are a result and exacerbated by the accepted stereotypical gender roles and how masculinity is being expressed in the region. This would also be useful in addressing what role does the adult male have to play in early sexual initiation. Working with sex specific groups separately may be useful as a first step.

Perhaps getting the new Male Desk at the Women's Bureau involved in this work in  whatever way would be most useful for the project would be interesting. It may also help with the longevity of the project.

It is always a challenge addressing the hierarchy that places male on male violence (MMV- to make it easier) above other associated forms of GBV.  During one workshop we used the analogy of violence being a cancer on society and looking at breast cancer and prostate cancer to represent VAW and MMV respectively. They both need to be addressed as they are both cancers and destructive, they just affect the body differently but can lead to death if not addressed. It also helped us to make the point that they need to be addressed in different ways. The participants responded positively to the analogy. It's simple but it worked with a skeptical group.

Also, colleagues on the police force pointed out that they really began to see domestic violence and VAW in general as a problem when they saw its connection to homicides in statistics.

 

 

Early Sexual Initiation of  Girls  : SISTEREN Theatre Collective /UN Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence Against Women

________________________________________________________________________________

 

The Bureau of Women’s Affairs welcomes the opportunity for membership in the Jamaica Partners for Peace initiative as it maximizes the opportunity for multi-sectoral cooperation as well as collaboration with Non-governmental Organizations to promote ‘gender mainstreaming’ as a methodology for the advancement the status of gender equality as a national goal. . 

The feedback of the National Women’s Machinery (NWM) seek to assist with the formulation of the query into a testable hypothesis ; to strengthen the  quantitative statement  and measurement of gender impact ;  to identify the coordinates  of the  intervention at the community level as separate from social intervention modules that are targeted at the level of the household or the level of the State. This is in keeping with social policy timeline on gender and development as specified by the  Millennium Development Goals,  the Beijing Declaration  and Platform of Action  a.k.a ‘the agenda for women’s empowerment’, the  CEDAW Convention a.k.a. ‘ the Women’s International  Bill of Rights’ as well as provisions on male participation outlined in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD,1994). These social policy tools are invaluable to the gender mainstreaming progress and offer a basis of comparative analysis with international trends.

The scope of our feedback today is  ‘institutional strengthening’ as it relates to the measurement challenges  mitigated by a  gender-based analysis with an emphasis on disaggregation by sex and age to capture the human development contingencies  of the factor of gender as a social construct that varies across time. Further to this is the value-added cohort-specific generalizations  towards a sexual-abuse free Jamaican childhood.

The community level  intervention into  the  causes and consequences of the early sexual initiation of the girl child by members of the adulthood population is a  national development imperative of every nation.  It is an ‘opportunistic ’[1] behavior  that is endangering to  human civilization  as it undermines the cultural norms and values of sustainable socio-cultural engagements between the child population  and the adult population. Early sexual initiation destroys social bonds of  trust  at  individual, interpersonal ,household  and community level  of which the state has an obligation to protect, prevent  and prosecute in the interest of national development.

Methodology of gender-based analysis.

 The Sex disaggregation principle is endorsed by ECOSOC RES 1997/2 and  CEDAW General Recommendation No. 9 Statistical data concerning the situation of women   noting that data disaggregated according to gender, with regard to both absolute numbers and percentages  is ‘ essential  to understanding the real situation of women’. This allows the gathering of information on male and females as separate groups with discrete  strategic gender needs and interests  that must be identified  as policy, legislative  and project outcomes and therefore useful for category construction  in  development planning, monitoring and evaluation.

The Definition of Gender-based violence

 The collection of sex-disaggregated statistics on crime and violence   assesses the sex composition of  the participants /partners/rivals /  subjects  as victims and aggressors  as illustrated in table 1.0 below:

 Table 1.0 Sex of the Offender x Sex of Victim

SEX OF OFFENDER
SEX OF VICTIM		Male	Female
	Male	Male on male  violence	Female to male violence
	Female	Male to female violence (GBV)	Female to female violence

 

What emerges from sex-disaggregation is a typology of crime based in which male-on-male violence emerges as the most prevalent form of violence based on  its frequency of occurrence.  

A major challenge identified by   SISTEREN is  the designation  of  male-on-male violence as a planning priority (on a quantitative basis) to the detriment of other variants such as  violence against women by men;  violence against men by women; and finally violence against women by women? Male on male aggression is a planning priority in its own right and is of high relevance to  the male cohort. However it does not negate violence against women as a competing priority insofar as the underlying principle of gender mainstreaming denotes the identification of  the practical and  strategic gender needs and interests /areas of concern of men and women. That males are more aggressive than women is a well establish factor of sex and gender. This is a priority in men’s lives. The forms of violence of concern to women are of different priority for women as compared with men. Women are more vulnerable to interpersonal violence between the sexes in a way that is of little consequences to males owing to sex differences in physical strength between the average male and the average female.

 It can be argued that the status of male on male violence as priority   is an objective criterion is the result of a gender-based analysis of   the frequency of participants in conflict by sex of  the participants.  In this case, rather than interpreting the  results to imply that violence against women is a lesser priority;  it would must be of maximum benefit if and only if,   viewed within the typology of the entire matrix in order to capture  the scope of  gender as an analytical category into  interpersonal level  occurrence of crime and violence.(see UNIFEM Study) .

 Strictly speaking  male on male violence   does not fit the standard definition  of gender-based violence  as cited in  General Recommendation No. 19 of the CEDAW Convention as a form of violence that is rooted in sex discrimination as set out in  article 1 of the CEDAW Convention that is “ violence that is directed against a women because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately”. The definition of gender-based violence  redress the very challenge  of low-priority setting  which SISTERN identifies which threaten to invalidate  violence against women as an objective area of research enquiry into  crime and violence.

A further comprehensive definition of gender-based violence  by location is enumerated in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (UNGASS Res. 48/104) notes that  the term ‘violence against women’ means any act of gender-based violence…whether  occurring in public or in private life and shall be understood to encompass, but not limited to the following:

a)       Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family [2]

b)             “ …occurring in the community[3]

c)       “…perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs

SISTEREN Theatre collective is advised to adopt this operational definition of gender-based violence as well as the definition of gender mainstreaming in order to strengthen the validity and reliability   of the framework to  anchor its inquiry into the controversy-filled areas of  Early Sexual Initiation of  Girls . In so doing, the proposed intervention is situated within the framework as a community level of occurrence .   (See also the study of the Secretary General: Ending Violence Against Women: From  words to action.  For a comprehensive analysis of causes and consequences, risk factors, and forms of violence at each level of  occurrence). 

A MEASUREMENT CHALLENGE

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the average age of first sexual encounter is earlier for males than females, ranging from 12.7 years for boys and 15.6 years for  girls[4]

  SOURCE OF DATA

The community level intervention is highly relevant given the clandestine nature of the sexual offence of girl/childhood which discourages reporting.  There are other socio-cultural factors of taboos around sexuality, religious beliefs, cultural myths, stereotypes, traditional customs and values, attitudes and behavior which mutually reinforces sexual abuse outcomes.  These are unexplored avenues of research that will benefit from SISTEREN intervention yielding insight and indicators of  the social and cultural patterns that contribute to the status of young girls. (please refer to JASPEV for model of community level intervention and factors to consider)

Administrative Statistics from the Health Sector

Gender x Age interaction

• The age-group of childhood is 0-18 yrs. Defining adolescents and young people varies by convention.  The commonly used definitions of adolescence is  age 10-19 yrs.  The adolescent period of human development can be disaggregated further into maturational intervals as follows: early adolescents. 10-14; late adolescence,15-19 yrs).  The term youth refers to 15-24 age cohort; whereas the term young people look broadly at the 10-24 years of age..  The point of all this is to add rigor to the SISTEREN intervention by making the factors of inquiry as measurable as possible.  The focus is on the status of the girl child  and may therefore examine the onset of sexual activity before the age of 15 years.  Even so, by speaking to  later adolescents can offer insight into early sexual activity of earlier years. In fact, it is possible to extend the analogy across the life-cycle  and interview persons across all age groups about the conditions of childhood sexuality  ‘ when they were growing up’  and yield a reservoir of  cultural information  on the cultural status of childhood sexuality  across different historical periods such as the 1960’s. 70’s  and 80’s.  This retrospective approach can yield vital inter-generational information on human sexuality from the storehouse of  Jamaican folk culture. This information is a cultural treasure and it engages adult male participation as well as other age groups that might not be otherwise willing to share information on sexual behavior. In this way also, one is able to progressively realize the differing political and economic, social and cultural realities faced by different generations of children and youth across different historical periods.(See also Table 20.4 Population of Jamaica by Age and Sex (ESSJ 2008) for a break down of relevant age intervals  in a sex-disaggregated way in absolute numbers and percentages.  This will assist to define the population size of the target group  selected by SISTEREN. It also provides a basis for viewing childhood  interval (0-18 yrs) not as a homogenous group but to discriminate  maturational intervals characteristic of the human life cycle as a rigorous index of human development.
  • See Table 20.2a Distribution of women in the reproductive Ages (15-49). The intervals include  the following age groups: 15-19;20-24;25-29;30-34;35-39;40-44;45-49. This is useful for examining female fertility intervals with emphasis on the 15-19 age group  which comprise 16.4 percent of the reproductive age cohort.  A complementary target for men is valid and reliable  even though male fertility extend beyond age 49 yrs.
  • Alternative model is the working age population groups extending from age 14 -65 yrs inclusive of the following age intervals: 14-19 yrs; 20-24 yrs; 25-34 yrs; 35-44 yrs; 45-54 yrs; 55-64 yrs and 65 and over.  It is useful as it recognize the 14-19 age group as labour   force participants; the risk factor to sexual initiation  lies indirectly in the high unemployment levels of youth (14-24 yrs)  in 2008 as more than 3x (25.9) that of adults (7.9). There is a gender differential of 2:1 ratio of unemployed women as compared with men; a gender differential which passes to young women with an unemployment rate of 33.7 percent.  A factor which contributes to female vulnerability to unwanted sexual outcomes including early onset sexual activity.

Let us look closer at the age factor as an analytic tool and how it can contribute to innovative research designs  that is sensitive to individual as well as collective inferences.  The data from the accident and emergency units of public hospitals   record intake by type of injury across sex and age.  It shows the health cost of crime and violence but also certain demographics of the cultural landscape of s of sexual abuse and its gender-differential effects.

Table 2.0 Patients Seen in Accident & Emergency Units of Public Hospitals By Condition(Sexual Assault, Gender and Age  (2007)

	>5yrs	5-9yrs	10-19	20-29	30-44	45-64	65+	Total Cases
Male	9	17	22	8	6	3	2
Female	38	112	797	179	65	19	17	1227
Total								1295

Source: Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (2007)

Age and sex disaggregation of data show sexual assault occurs at every stage of the life-cycle of   females; women and girls are victims of sexual assault represent 94% of the cases presented at A&E units (2007). These are the characteristic signature of gender-based violence.  It is useful as demonstrable proof  to show the vulnerability of male victims of sexual assault as an area of substantive research inquiry. This is a springboard to address the strategic and practical gender needs of  the male child.  It is a starting place for the dialogue on gender ideology and its roots in male aggression (sexual).  It is also possible separate the interest of childhood groups into categories : >5 yrs, 5-9 yrs,  10-14 yrs and 15-19 yrs to have a reliable measure of childhood.

It is useful to identify relevant indicators are intervention progress, mindful of the Millennium Development Goals, targets and indicators, and BFA on the ‘the Girl Child. Examples include:

• Half of all new HIV infections occur in people aged 15-24 yrs
• Births to women 15-19 years old  is a target of the Millennium Development Goals to achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.   Reproductive health consequence ranks among the unwanted outcomes of earlier onset  of sexual activity  and increasing the exposure to maternal mortality. 
• Indirect data that point to the problem of child sexual abuse  was identified  by Member of Parliament Marjorie Taylor in 1996 to include sexually transmitted diseases  in childhood  of which  7 boys and 17 girls were infected with syphilis in 1993. There were also 327 cases of gonorrhea in children 0-14 yrs. It serves to underscore the fact that  sexual violence against children is not adequately substantiated by  empirical data  due to the unavailability of  reliable data  and the need for ‘institutional strengthening’ of record keeping across agencies involved in the care and protection of children.

Police statistics

Reports on sexual offences in Jamaica cover a range of behaviors: Rape, carnal abuse, incest, indecent assault, buggery, attempted rape and assault with intent to rape. The data indicate the status of the offence as reported and cleared up. One of the benefits of police and court  statistics is that the records are necessarily based on law such as the penal or criminal code. If there is no law that specifies an act of violence against women  as a crime then there is no basis for  filing a complaint. Community level factors such as fear of reprisal, distrust of the police and legal system, stigma, lack of knowledge of legal rights conspire to the reluctance of victims to report offences. Community level intervention can serve to mitigate  impact of sexual abuse  of  the childhood of  ‘the girl child’ by increasing awareness of the provision of  the Child Care and Protection Act and  creating an enabling environment for reporting, restoration, recovery and redress through improved community  knowledge  and access to service delivery mechanism; In addition to a strengthened climate of advocacy.

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3.0 Age Group and Sex of Persons Arrested For Selected Major Crimes, 2008

	Murder		Rape		Carnal Abuse
AGE Group	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
12-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61 and over Unknown	8 106 173 129 67 35 23 9 3 1 1 24	0 5 2 6 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0	32 86 74 64 33 28 26 10 7 2 1 10		27 110 73 40 37 22 12 14 3 7 2 9
TOTAL	579	16	373	0	356	0

Source : Economic and social Survey of Jamaica  (2008) pp. 24.5

The table demonstrates the gender differential in criminal outcomes in terms of causes and/or offender profile  allowing extrapolation of offenders by age group which can be contextualized in sexual and reproductive age group or  the alternative working age population  depending on target group or prevention objectives.  The table also demonstrate gender-based violence  in the disproportionate represented of males among offenders in crimes in which females predominated as victims ( see A&E data above).

FYI: The age difference between victim and perpetrator is an exploratory  indicator  Intimate-partner Violence (IPV’s) is an emergent area of interest of the National Women’s Machinery

 

(See also Table 24.13 Total  Admissions to Adult Correctional Institutions  by Offence, Age Group and Sex, 2008.)

Recommendation

• Increasing knowledge, opportunities, choices and participation of young people will enable them to lead healthy and productive lives as citizens and safeguard against the pitfalls of youth  unemployment  in meeting Millennium Development Goal No. 8; ‘Today,  we have the world’s largest generation of adolescents in history-1.2 billion strong- is preparing to enter adulthood in a rapidly changing world’(State of the World Population(2003). The strengthening of civil participation of youth strengthens democracy. A lack of other opportunities such as employment, sports or religious and cultural activities tends to increase the centrality of sexual behavior  in adolescents’ self-definition and self-esteem.
• The issue of interpersonal relationship must be addressed through gendered lenses . How are boys taught to view girls and vice versa.  Teach boys that girls are not to be used as property or chattels;

provide instructions on healthy relationships;  The roots of play preferences, the concept of gender constancy and the origin of sex play as part of the continuum of the maturation of the sexual instinct.

• Due consideration to household level factors as parenting the process i.e., socialization  as well as the   structures of  the family (i.e., married, common-law, father absent formation); noting that church, home and school are the early institutions  of gender ideology and gender-role expectations with shaping effects on socialization outcome with gender- differential outcomes as a core value.
• An innovative variation of the life cycle approach assist to capture the relevance of human rights  as  indivisible and inalienable  but also collective rights with due respect to personal boundaries and the power of negotiation and decision-making  as benchmarks of human freedom.; insight into the status of females 15-19 year old.
• Develop a logical framework (log frame) for project implementation and collect data to support the evidential platform of program intervention.  In this regard the  social policy instrument  especially the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, Strategic Objective K on the ‘the girl child’, this is supplemented by Convention on the Rights of the Child  (CRC) noting the  ‘Best Interest of the Child’ principle.

The GOJ takes an ongoing research and development interest in strengthening the evidential basis of its gender equality framework as a basis of national decision-making to inform legislation, policies and programs  decisions with due emphasis on ‘gender-differential ’impact on women and men at the individual level and in terms of the status of  women and men in terms of  average differences.   The point is that there are many avenues to take  and past research creates a songline to areas of further intervention.   I have tried to demonstrate the degree of seriousness of the concern ranging from ‘just a likkle sex’ to a development planning priority.  Highlighting the pivotal  and catalytic potential for framework setting that a community  a  community level model affords.

Best Regards.

Donna

END

References

 Planning Institute of Jamaica (2008) Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica

Jamaica social Policy Evaluation (JASPEV)(2008)Jamaica 2015 National Progress Report 2004-2006 on Jamaica’s Social Policy Goals. See key goal#5: chapter on Health  and well-being: Safe Sexual Behavior & Median Age of First Sex pp.5/257 -265; see also key goal 2 : Social Integration

UNIFEM/ECLAC (2003) Eliminating Gender-Based Violence, Ensuring Equality pp.39-56

UN Secretary General Study: Ending violence Against Women: From Words to Action

UNFPA (2003) State of the World Population: investing in adolescents’ health and rights.

United Nations Economic and Social Affairs(2005) The World’s Women: Progress in Statistics.

Vision 20/30 Jamaica National Development Plan (2009)

 

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[1] It is this opportunistic quality of adult-to- child/adolescent sexual contact that gives rise to the analogy with the mechanism of action of carcinogen.  It implies a cost-benefit analysis that allows ‘loopholes’ to established standard, the cumulative frequency of which undermines or results in the disempowerment the survival of the organism.

[2] …including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, FMG and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence, violence related to exploitation.

[3] Including rape and sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in  women and forced prostitution

[4] State of the World Population (2003) Investing in adolescents’ health and  rights. See also Ch. 2 on  Gender Inequality and  reproductive Health.

Dear All,

Please see attached documents pertinent to the discussion.

Young Birds that Know Storm - Herbert Gayle and School-based Risk and Resiliency Survey 2005

Regards,

Janet A. Cupidon Quallo

Child Protection Specialist

UNICEF Jamaica

8th Floor, Pan Caribbean Building

60 Knutsford Blvd, Kingston 5.

Telephone: (876) 926-7585 Fax: (876) 929-8084

e-mail: jcupidonquallo@unicef.org

For every child

Health, Education, Equality, Protection

ADVANCE HUMANITY

 

Thank you, Sistren and Jamaica Partners for Peace, for putting this very insidious issue on the table for open dialogue. It is a real concern for me as a Clinical Social Worker, Retired Auditor and Trade Unionist,  the sexual abuse of our young children and adolescents, both boys and girls.  It concerns me because whilst it should be a public shame there are socio-cultural factors at play that actually reinforces sexual abuse and its outcomes, and discourages reporting.

 Based on my own research and field experience I have found that:

• In some Basic and Primary schools there are some children who can be identified also as perpetrators and victims of sexual violence, incest and sexual harassment (Supported by Research Data and Reports). This behaviour was identified in 3 Basic Schools, believe me there are more. There is no doubt people are afraid to talk or have been living in denial. As a result, this “silence” is protected.
•  There is evidence to suggest that adults who today are displaying inappropriate sexual behaviours and those accused and charged of sexual harassment, were as children victims of sexual violence either directly or indirectly.  Our little children are directly witnessing violent incidences in the streets which most often is their playground. I never forgot the children in a popular community who were used as “human shields by gunmen”, I was their social worker.  We are today reaping those outcomes which often times are never addressed. 

 Sexual abuse outcomes:

  As adults they are unable to maintain wholesome relationships whether with their partner or in their own family setting and in their places of work. They also suffer from negative social and psychological outcomes eg depression, attempt suicide, drug addiction/abuse.

Recommended strategies:

• Each Community or Parish should have a team of professionals – social workers, psychologist, sociologist, medical practitioner, nurses etc, who are trained in community and clinical work coming together, and working together holistically to address inappropriate behaviours, relationships and cognition – the thinking of people/individuals.  All this to be done in their own natural environment – home, school. Church, work etc. Focus should be placed on the theories of Control, Choice and Change – Behaviour Change and the Concepts of Self.

Right here in Jamaica there are several persons who are multi skilled and are trained to work in several disciplines but who are underutilized and who are boxed or stifled in only one area where they are unable to “make the connections” for sustainable development. There are persons willing to work in communities for a stipend ($5,000 per session or $3,000 an hour, as their contribution). Why are we not utilizing our Human Services Retired Practitioners? Why do they have to prepare these tedious proposals to earn a living? We have enough proposals in this country, use them, and get these committed and dedicated people to do the work.

 We as a people – “the self”, cannot continue to live in a vacuum, everything we do individually including our challenges / negative experiences is connected and related to the social ills of the society, we cannot continue to claim individually only the positives. We, “the self” have to take responsibility. We have to re-socialize ourselves along with the children. Transformation of Jamaica is about “integration” and making available the social and economic services needed, not “exclusion” or only providing these services through social and economic interventions in some communities. It has to be socio-economic interventions in all communities, no matter their standard of living.

Early sexual initiation of children boys and girls has been seriously spreading across the income levels of this country. This is no longer affecting only “children living in one room” but now children having their own rooms. Look at the data for sexual abuses coming out of the CAMP Bustamante Project at the Children’s Hospital, which has been discontinued I am told due to lack of funding. It is a shame this project was allowed to end instead of improving it.

This is where Rose Robinson Hall and her team (myself included) used to go into the communities and homes of the children to address these cases of abuses. This is only one reason why these interventions must be taken back to the communities and homes more aggressively. We reach a stage now where workplaces cannot be excluded either from providing social intervention/services, for example on the topics of parenting and sexual harassment, in order to reach the young workers and young parents who “fell through the cracks” in their childhood – family and community life.

                                                                          

 Implications for early Sexual Initiation/Stimulation – An Integrated Approach

1.  In my capacity as a Clinical Social Worker/ Trade Unionist I have found through my work in communities with employees and their families since 1993 to present, that this issue is also connected to generational physical and sexual abuses and promiscuity not just with girls but also with boys.
2. There has to be Gender Sensitization sessions in the communities on a regular basis for all age groups– on the street corner, in bars, in youth and young adults groups, parenting education sessions etc. (Gender Re-socialization)
3. The reality is that Sexual Harassment is now in the Basic Schools moving straight into the workplaces (I have been called in to address this problem). We now need an appropriate system in place to deal with community education programmes on Sexual Harassment, not just in some schools or workplaces but also throughout the entire educational system which includes teachers.
4. Policy makers must recognize the work and need of Social Workers at this time. We need to identify where the Social Workers are and have at least one assigned to each community even on a part time basis, say monthly visitations / planned public sessions. All we need is some benches under a tree or a school classroom or church hall.
5.  In adulthood, women who were abused during childhood are unable to have meaningful or stable relationships with their partners, due to unresolved sexual and physical childhood abuse.
6.  The breakdown in family values, behaviours and attitudes during childhood is having negative impact during adulthood in relation to workplace issues.
7.  Not providing more life skills educational training in ALL communities on a regular basis, as much as possible whether high risk or not, at the same time.  The reality is that in communities and within schools people are now displaying inappropriate and illegal behaviours. This is based on my experience as a Justice of the Peace and Clinical and Community Social Worker, and handling grievances in the workplace with all categories of workers no matter where they live, as a Trade Union Advocate. Therefore, when we (policy makers, planners of social intervention programmes) only target our interventions to a few communities/people , the other communities/people who are displaying inappropriate and illegal behaviours (which would now be the majority), are still able to influence those that were trained or exposed to this new knowledge - the expected appropriate and legal behaviours.
8. Our children must be provided with alternative positive activities within their own communities (separate from at schools) for example the use of Play Therapy – art, music/song and drama; and for adolescents, young and older adults identifying the skills and finding and providing income generating projects in communities. This is of high importance and priority at this time for youngsters idling daily on the streets in too many communities, as a Crime Prevention strategy which would include abuse of children and young girls and women. 
9. Breaking “the silence of incest protection” and focusing more on gender re-socialization which contributes to gender based violence and related issues, if dealt with in the communities and more in the media (electronic/print) will become high on community members list of problems. For example, I recently identified a whole district displaying incestuous behaviours - family members being socialized from childhood into adulthood.

 Sustainability:

To identifying funding that can assist in paying social workers and other human service practitioners a stipend to go into these communities to work – Public Education Workshops, even on weekends.

To solicit from Jamaican Associations and Organizations abroad to sponsor only one monitoring session in communities monthly, all we need is US$100.00 or its equivalent monthly and we would see a big difference in the society.

Lessons learnt:

• The challenge we face is that this inappropriate behavior has become a sub-culture that is supporting the fact that such behavior is normal and acceptable, and as such, needs to be addressed before it gets worse, no critical, no it’s pass that, it is now getting chronic when this behavior is now being displayed in basic schools – early childhood and Sunday schools. This problem and its solutions are rooted in my last unpublished paper “The Violations of Family Boundaries and Silence of Incest Protection”, 2006.This Social Work report focuses on the early sexual initiation of girls and boys in two Jamaican families, the breaking down of family boundaries and the communities response.
• “The child is priority”, “The child comes first”, that’s a motto for social workers and as such, all agents of socialization must be taken into consideration seriously. Based on my experience as a practicing Generalist Social Work Practitioner – Clinical, Community & Administration, it is important that an integrated approach be taken in preventing early sexual initiation of girls. Focus has to be placed on communities - the family, schools, churches, groups and places of work.
• It has been observed that gender issues have become a major problem and as such I have always paid attention to the behaviors and relationships of males that often goes unchallenged. Also, that no consideration is given to the social and power dynamics they display with vulnerable girls, no matter their background or economic status. In order to do, I did a course on “The facilitation of fathers/men in discussion groups” in the mid 1990’s with Prof. Barry Chevannes and Janet Brown, and as a result, ended up having sessions with men in their community bars and places of work in order to have an idea of their thinking, so that we can begin to design and put in place strategies to address relationship and gender issues. Last year this writer designed and implemented in two schools and  three places of work a training module or session on The Concepts of  “Self”- Who am I? In this Integrated and Changing Environment.
• Also from my experience, public education and training is required not just in the family during childhood when there is a problem but continuously during school life, at church and in the community church hall or on the street corner. Even going back to the good old days on a Saturday or Sunday evening “under the community tree”. The workplace is another important area based on the changing environment – a young workforce, and the new cultural practices “inherited or adopted”.  In the new workplace there is an influx of youngsters (adolescents and young adults) with the departure of older and experienced adults where succession planning for economic and productive purposes has been poor much less social purposes.
• I know that with proper planning and focus, social work and human services interventions can work to reduce and ultimately prevent, more effectively, the two major ills in the society - crime and violence and abuse of children. This has been proved over the years in a few communities “behind the scenes”.

As a result, a Social Business was formed as an Investment in Jamaican Children and as a non-profit organization – Making Your Connections Holistic Services (MYCHS). The concept of this social intervention is Child, Family and Worker Advocacy, the theme being “Be Jamaican, Make the Connections”. We have even adopted Sistren’s slogan “tek it to dem” – taking the services to the people wherever they are at home, work, church, in the bars and even in the hair dressing parlours. In this investment, funding is being solicited from individuals here and abroad to sponsor programmes, whether to work in one community riddled with anger and fear of resolving their problems or with one family with say for example, generational abuses and/or migration issues. Yes we are getting a lot of support and commitments but funding is slow. We just want those who care to remember that “every mickle meck a muckle” and “one one cocoa full basket”, we just have to start with whatever we have and make the funding stretch to more communities and families.

                                                                             ………..In Solidarity...............

 Marcia Y.C. Higgins J.P., BSc, MSW

Retired Public Sector Auditor (Seniority)

Retired V.P. Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA)

Founder/CEO - Making Your Connections Holistic Services

Consultant/Member – Jamaica Association of Social Workers

V.P. - Association of Friends and Families of Substance Abusers

Part Time Administrator/Clinician – UWI Violence Prevention Clinic

Guest/ Part Time Lecturer – UWI Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute

Co-Chair/Member – Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions Women’s Committee