Sistas Calling to bring awareness to domestic violence

DOMESTIC violence is a pervasive part of modern society. The upcoming performing arts public education production Sistas Calling TT is therapist Dr Roz Roach’s attempt to educate the public about this problem and change the psyche of the society. The event will take place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on October 25.

Speaking at the launch of the production at NAPA on October 9, Roach said she had been researching domestic violence and working with survivors in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago since the 1980s.

“I’ve done several studies and surveys across Canada and when I ask what can help to decrease domestic violence, people say, education, education, education. The issue is changing lives, we need to change lives. We will be making noise because we want to penetrate your psyche and change it.”

Roach said she had observed that women were often stigmatised and judged for being victims of domestic violence, including being turned away by the police and their own families. She said restraining orders and attempting to leave often got people killed, but there were no safe spaces for them to go to or support for them to leave, especially for people with children.

Roach is the founder of Dr Roz’s Healing Place, a centre for empowerment and healing for women and children fleeing family violence in Canada. It has 33 beds and since its inception in 1984, it has helped over 2,000 women.

Roach said the production was dedicated to the memory of Marcia Henville, who was killed by her husband in St Augustine in January 2015. Her throat was slit and she was stabbed and set on fire at her home. Roach said a few days prior to her death, Henville had approached her on behalf of “a friend” to find out how she could leave the country.

“She asked me, ‘On behalf of a friend who is going through this abuse, what advice would you give to her?” I said, ‘Are you sure you’re not talking about yourself?’ And she said, ‘no, no, no, it’s a friend’, but I knew.

“This is what women do, because they’re ashamed to tell, they don’t want to take their business outside. They were trained to ‘keep your business at home, don’t wash your dirty linen outside of the house’, they were brainwashed into that.”

Roach said she was recently told that Henville had applied for a restraining order but not received it. She said this was another

One Caribbean Media environmental, social and governance lead Rashmi Ramsomair said there were 1,937 reported cases of domestic violence in 2024, according to the gender-based violence unit. She said up to September 27, there had already been 1,295 cases

“These figures highlight the urgent need for awareness, support and decisive action. Among those, we remember Marcia Henville, a respected journalist and colleague of ours at TV6, who tragically lost her life at the age of 51 as a victim of domestic violence in 2015. Her legacy inspires us to fight harder against this epidemic.”

She said Sistas Calling was more than a campaign, it was a movement crafted from the fabric of TT’s culture.

For more information, call 383-7174 or email sistascalling@gmail.com. Tickets are available at islandetickets.com.