The Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (NFSD) in the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices (MDDFS) is chal­leng­ing the na­tion’s men to stop hurt­ing the na­tion’s women, and says it will con­tin­ue its spe­cial­ist pro­grammes tar­get­ing men specif­i­cal­ly, in a bid to re­duce the vi­o­lent at­tacks on women by men.

The move comes against the back­drop of what the Min­istry de­scribes as “in­creased ag­gres­sion” against women by men whom they know, as well as in­creased phys­i­cal at­tacks—some fa­tal and in­clud­ing rape—against women by men who are strangers to them.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry, the sit­u­a­tion has wors­ened par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

One of the pro­gramme de­vel­op­ment spe­cial­ists at the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (NFSD), says men who hurt women can seek help in an ef­fort to avoid bring­ing harm to po­ten­tial vic­tims.

Why are men hurt­ing women?

Ac­cord­ing to the NFSD spe­cial­ist, do­mes­tic abusers tend to be con­trol­ling, ma­nip­u­la­tive and be­lieve they pos­sess a pre­or­dained right to be in con­trol in re­la­tion­ships.

“Of­ten times they al­so see them­selves as vic­tims and af­ter an at­tack, they would some­times ac­cuse the ac­tu­al vic­tim of mak­ing them hurt them,” she ex­plained.  “It is a psy­cho­log­i­cal is­sue many men en­counter; un­for­tu­nate­ly, this is the way they make them­selves feel em­pow­ered.”

She added: “Most per­pe­tra­tors would have ob­served or un­der­gone some sort of abuse in their ear­ly child­hood, which has cre­at­ed re­lat­ed trau­ma en­cour­ag­ing sim­i­lar be­hav­iour.  This abu­sive be­hav­iour is usu­al­ly a learned trait and thus, the cy­cle of abuse is re­peat­ed.” 

In­creas­ing ag­gres­sion against women by men

“The spike in vi­o­lence against women in the coun­try, as we have seen in the me­dia late­ly is be­ing at­trib­uted in part to COVID-19,” the NFSD spe­cial­ist ob­serves.  

“Since the lock­down, per­sons have been in close quar­ters; not hav­ing much per­son­al space any­more has made al­ready ag­gra­vat­ed sit­u­a­tions worse in some in­stances. In reg­u­lar sit­u­a­tions, COVID-19 re­stric­tions have been stress­ful and in the case of most abusers, they usu­al­ly have anger is­sues and giv­en fur­ther con­straints, minute con­di­tions can trig­ger them to be­come vi­o­lent,” she ex­plains.

She al­so re­ports that dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, the Di­vi­sion has seen an in­crease in the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol and drugs, which al­so in­creas­es the like­li­hood of vi­o­lent rants by some men.

The NFSD spe­cial­ist al­so notes the min­istry is very con­cerned about the in­crease in gen­er­al acts of vi­o­lence against women and girls by men un­known to them.

“In some in­stances,” she says, “these men have tak­en these women and girls against their will, abus­ing them and in some in­stances even pro­ceed­ing to rape and mur­der these fe­males.  This is a clear in­di­ca­tion that there is a break­down in the val­ue sys­tem, where­by re­spect for women has been lost by these of­fend­ers.”

To ad­dress this par­tic­u­lar is­sue, in 2021, the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vice (MS­DFS) plans to em­bark on a Val­ues, At­ti­tudes and Be­hav­iours (VABs) cam­paign as part of a Vi­sion 2030 strat­e­gy to build re­silience and re­turn to ba­sics with­in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pop­u­la­tion.

Ways to end the vi­cious cy­cle

Coun­selling is con­sid­ered one of the first steps in an ef­fort to un­learn a par­tic­u­lar be­hav­iour, and the NFSD spe­cial­ist rec­om­mends that any per­son who com­mits vi­o­lent acts against women—and who recog­nis­es they need help and want to stop—should ex­plore the coun­selling and ther­a­py op­tions which the Di­vi­sion fa­cil­i­tates.

“It is very un­like­ly that a per­son would vol­un­tar­i­ly seek help but in the event that they do, these ser­vices are avail­able through the NFSD,” the Di­vi­sion spe­cial­ist ex­plains. 

“The harsh re­al­i­ty though, is some­times ther­a­py for men is sug­gest­ed on­ly af­ter the per­son com­mits an of­fence,” she points out.  “This is when the sit­u­a­tion is brought to light by the au­thor­i­ties and rec­om­men­da­tions are made for as­sis­tance.”

In ad­di­tion to ther­a­py, the Di­vi­sion be­lieves pow­er­ful and con­tin­u­ous pub­lic in­for­ma­tion and ed­u­ca­tion aware­ness cam­paigns on the is­sue of gen­der-based vi­o­lence can make a dif­fer­ence in the sta­tis­tics. 

“These types of pro­grammes must be de­vel­oped and pro­mot­ed in an ef­fort to have vic­tims speak out, as well as to en­cour­age per­pe­tra­tors to seek help,” the Di­vi­sion spe­cial­ist said.  “Last year, NFSD host­ed a se­ries of suc­cess­ful par­ent­ing work­shops for men.  Sim­i­lar­ly, in 2021, we are con­sid­er­ing host­ing more sen­si­ti­za­tion work­shops for men, cre­at­ing a safe space for them to speak out.”

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For those in need of the ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (NFSD) can call 623-2608 ext. 6701 – 8.

Oth­er agen­cies pro­vid­ing sup­port and as­sis­tance to those caught up in gen­der-based vi­o­lence sit­u­a­tions in­clude:

●   Coali­tion Against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence (CADV)… con­tact them at 624-0402.

●   Gen­der Based Vi­o­lence Unit (GB­VU) in the Po­lice Ser­vice… call the hot­line num­bers 555 and 999.

●   Na­tion­al Hot­line for Vic­tims of Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence… call 800-SAVE (7283).