SIAH addresses gender-based violence |25 May 2023
In line with ‘Orange Day’ celebrated on the 25th of each month, the quality of life division from the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Family held a campaign on gender-based violence at the Seychelles Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture (SIAH).
The post-secondary students engaged in various activities with the leading presenters, Nathalie Didon and Rennette Bonne. They were asked questions regarding their perspectives on GBV, how to prevent it, and how to react if faced with such a situation.
At the end of the presentation they were asked to fill in a questionnaire.
The workshop also went over different forms of GBV such as sexual, physical or verbal and emotional.
“Communication is key and it is important that we do so and the youth are really aggressive in their fight against GBV,” explained Ms Didon, adding that participants know how to behave and what are the available services.
Ms Didon also expressed her appreciation for yesterday’s turnout and was impressed how the students dealt with the topic at hand. She explained that the division often get a lot of people coming in for counselling and there are young people who are facing violence but are not coming forward to express what is happening.
“The youth know where they can get access to the services but there is a little bit of hesitation there.”
She added that a lot of people are showing up on a weekly basis at the division to see counsellors in their Quality of Life unit, and there are around 25 people reporting GBV-based crimes and seeking psychological help.
Moreover, a research in 2016 showed that GBV continued to rise and had remained stable within the last decade. Ms Didon explained that the division is doing targeted research and surveys to give information to research and policy planning to be able to create policies that will target GBV.
Statistics show that the number of people who are getting remanded for GBV-based crimes is rising at an alarming rate rather than decreasing.
Furthermore, she stated that if the youth join together to help the victims and fight back against GBV the new generation will be better educated about how to stop the atrocities.
The accompanying photos show some highlights of the campaign.
Sunny Esparon
Photos by Louis Toussaint
