Ladies listening at the start of the ‘Reclaim Our Streets: Women’s Solidarity March’ yesterday at Queen’s Park.
The ‘Reclaim Our Streets: Women’s Solidarity March’ in progress.
Hundreds reclaimed the streets yesterday when they participated in the Life in Leggings movement ‘Reclaim Our Streets: Women’s Solidarity March’.
Shouts of “look but don’t touch me” and “my body, my rules” could be heard as males and females of all ages trekked through The City. They carried placards with messages calling for an end to street harassment and gender-based violence.
The march moved off from Queen’s Park with participants travelling along St. Michael’s Row onto Bridge Street to Wharf Road before returning to the Park via Lower and Upper Broad Street. Prior to its start, there were speeches and a performance by singer, Ch’an.
A number of well-known individuals were among the walkers who mostly wore purple T-shirts. These included Founder and Producer of Honey Jam Barbados, Ebonnie Rowe; Poet Adisa Andwele; Barbados’ delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner; Member of Parliament for St. George South, Dwight Sutherland; Member of Parliament for St. Thomas, Cynthia Forde; Member of Parliament for St. Michael West Central, James Paul; and Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development, Steven Blackett.
Luci Hammans, Assistant Director of the Life in Leggings: The Caribbean Alliance Against Gender-based Violence, spoke to The Barbados Advocate about the significance of the day’s event.
“We are trying to gather as many people together as possible to raise awareness about gender-based violence, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and make a stand and show that we are trying to make a difference and show that things can change as long as we all come together and make a change together culturally. Also, [it is] to celebrate those who are survivors of gender-based violence and to represent a better future and march towards a better future.”
Hammans said similar marches were held on the day in six other Caribbean countries. They were in Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Dominica and the Bahamas.
She also stated that following the day’s march, the movement will be aiming to stage more events to further raise public awareness.
“We are looking to tackle gender-based violence throughout the region. So we are looking for personal development within the team and the organisation. We are also looking at projects that use community and education to interact with more communities in Barbados to address this issue and make it a more accessible issue that we talk about and address together.”
She continued, “More events will be happening undoubtedly because we are a grassroots organisation who want to bring as many events as possible to keep the conversation going.”