‘First Ladies’ have vibrant roles to play

Addressing the ‘Every Caribbean Woman, Every Caribbean Child’ Forum of Caribbean First Ladies, Spouses of Heads of State and Government, Georgetown, Guyana on Thursday, Carmona said that as part of the Caribbean thrust to get it right, the wives must not feel or experience a sense of isolation when addressing challenging social and human issues in the region.

“We must all collectively be part of that vanguard movement to ensure overall human development in our various countries by working at providing implementable solutions to the growing social and human problems in the region,” she said.

Noting that the forum seeks to address major challenges facing women, children and adolescents, she said they include cervical cancer, prevention of motherto- child HIV transmission, human trafficking, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), violence against women and child marriage.

On child marriage, she reiterated that little girls must be afforded the opportunity to grow “and to realise their full potential with unstinting guidance and support from parents and the society at large.” Child marriage is an anachronism, she said, “that absolutely bears no relevance to a progressive holistic society.” Recalling that her grandmother was a 13-year-old bride who never realised her ambition of becoming a teacher, she said, “I do not want this to ever happen again to an innocent child of 13 years.” There must be no disparity of treatment in a society that aspires to be just, she said adding that, “Affirmative legislative action must be invoked regionally in keeping with the dictates of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” On teenage pregnancy, she said, Caribbean society is now encountering various anti-social trends in reality television, social media, and camera phones, where promiscuous sexual practices and irresponsible behaviour were being promoted and leading to breakdown in values among youth.

Noting that parents can no longer simply hope for the best, and leave it up to teachers in schools or the church, she said, “Parents must be vigilant to ensure that their teenage girls do not fall prey to the roaming predators that exist in cyber space.

The battle is sometimes not only one grounded in poverty but rather, it has become a battle of the minds, and for the minds, of our teenagers.” Dealing with the problems of adolescent pregnancy, she said, “We need to target the poverty-stricken communities, educate entire families and young people on the benefits of abstinence and even birth control.” Community social work programmes must be devised to identify at-risk children from as early as birth, she said, to prevent all forms of social deviance and sexual abuse in socially challenging communities