Flat Stanley; A View of the Sea-Side at Pelican Resort; Update on Sexual Assault Project

Jaminez and Flat Stanley. Isn't she just adorable?

Can you see the bird on the tree stub sticking out of the water? This area is just a few blocks from my house.

Youth play basketball by the seaside. RJ could give them some serious competition!

A view from the tropics looking from the bay of Pelican Resort in Dangriga. This photo was taken 3 June 2008. Notice the brown waters.....a result of Tropical Storm Arthur. The waters are beautifully blue now.

OK.....now let me update you on my project. The sexual assault unit in the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) office proposal is going quite well. The goal is to get the national DPP's office to establish a separate unit within the prosecutor's office to prosecute nothing but sexual assault cases (rape, incest, indecent assault, carnal knowledge..etc).

Currently, I am waiting a response from the National Director of the Women's Dept (Icilda Humes) to inform us of a date that Attorney Moore, Ms. Michelle Irving, the National Gender-Based Violence Committee and myself can visit to discuss the projects' findings and possible advocacy strategy to the DPP (as a group) in hopefully, making the proposal reality in the near future.

While I await Director Humes' response, I am aggressively connecting with other organizations to obtain letters of support. We are to meet with the local Gender-Based Violence committee in Dangriga tomorrow to obtain their letter of support before we meet with the national heads. In addition, we have already received a letter of support from Men for Social Change in Dangriga. This organization is a small, yet important supporter. As women and girls are the predominant targets of sexual crimes and commercial sexual exploitation in Belize, having men who are reputable in the community support this effort really means a lot. Their support demonstrates that its not just these strong, socially active women (Moore & Irving) who are leading the movement, but the Men in the Dangrigan community are also throwing their support behind the proposal because they desire "to see an end to the sexual contamination and destruction of our children and sexual victimization of women."

Today, I reached out to Y.E.S. (Youth Enhancement Services). YES is a group based in Belize City that has been at the forefront of advocacy against the sexual commercial exploitation of girls. They are reviewing the proposal and will inform me soon of their ability to provide a letter of support. In addition, the Haven House is reviewing the proposal. Haven House is a battered women's shelter in Belize City.

I have been personally touched by this research and project. Having 2 young daughters under 10 years old, the stories I am hearing almost daily could literally bring tears to your eyes. But moreso, it makes me more determined to give the project a 100% effort. If a child is raped, it is the duty of a society to put in every measure to protect the most vulnerable from these vile predators. (No less effort should be undertaken for adult women)......some real case scenario's encountered.......identities withheld for obvious reasons:

SCENARIO I: A single mother turns the other way as Mr. X picks her 10 year old daughter up and takes her away for a few hours. This happens a couple of times a week. Each time the child returns, she has money to provide to mom. This is too frequent of an event....the only reasoning..."income is needed to supplement the household."

SCENARIO II: A married woman wants a divorce. Why? She's been with her husband since she was 15 (he was 19). She is now 34. He is now 38. They have 4 children. 2 are girls. They are now 18 and 13 years old. Dad, their biological father, molested the oldest starting at the age of 13 thru 16. Mom filed charges. The case got adjourned and adjourned and adjourned. When she went to court the 4th time, the case file(remember they are all hand-written here) is mysteriously lost. So since there's no file, there's no case unless mom wants to start all over. Exhausted and out of money, mom gives up on pressing charges. She takes him back. Then, to her horror, she finds out that Dad also had sex with the youngest from 5-8 years of age.

SCENARIO III: Headline in the Local Paper......"Brothers Walk Free as Sister Admits to Seducing Them!

In all these cases, the greatest hope would be that the prosecution would go after the male perpetrators and send a STRONG message to future perps that the behavior is not only legally unacceptable, but socially looked down upon, emotionally damaging and will simply not be tolerated. Because sexual assaults are a special kind of crime that takes away the human dignity and self-esteem/worth of the victim, it is important to have specially trained police officers, social workers, and prosecutors who are well versed in handling these type of cases.

This project has a long way to go before it comes to full fruition. However, we are on the right track though. More updates later.