Flow Trinidad promotes GBV campaign to save lives

After the deaths of two employees owing to gender-based violence (GBV) in 2021, Liberty Caribbean, the parent company of high-speed internet, phone and cable TV provider, Flow Trinidad, took steps to raise awareness about GBV and hopefully save lives.

In a video interview, Dominic Boon, VP of People at Liberty Caribbean, explained that each market had its own awareness campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, including group seminars.

16 Days of Activism began on November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ends on December 10, Human Rights Day.

On the Liberty Caribbean LinkedIn account, the company shared news of winning the award for Best Diversity and Inclusion Initiative at the 2025 Global Connectivity Awards in London on October 22.

“In particular, they recognised our efforts around GBV and the policy that we have, which we share both internally and externally. So we're very pleased about that, and we're using that as an additional way to get the message out there to the Caribbean and to other organisations like ours.”

Boon said at a senior leadership meeting in Miami next week, the attendees will be supporting the cause by wearing “End Violence Against Women” T-shirts. Flow Trinidad also sponsored The Shelter for Battered Women and Children’s annual charity golf tournament on June 29. Staff members were also encouraged to donate items to residents of those homes.

The Shelter is a safe house for women and children who are survivors of all forms of domestic violence.

He stressed the topic of GBV was not new to employees, as it resonates with many of them owing to the loss of one employee in Barbados and one in Puerto Rico in domestic violence situations.

“At that point, we did some reflection and some thinking about it. We came up with our gender-based violence policy, and every year we've been raising awareness of this policy, predominantly internally to start with, so that employees know they have that support if they're faced with that situation.

“Now we are also trying to talk about it externally, including sharing, in an open source style, our policy so that other organisations can access it and think about how they might introduce a similar policy in their organisations.”

The policy defines GBV, is applied to all employees, not just women, and takes into account the children of employees. It includes several options, including paying for housing for the victim, relocating them to another office, paying for counselling, arranging for a flexible work schedule, financial support if they wish to take legal action and more.

“We have an HR team, we call them the people team, who is trained and ready to support these employees in a very discreet manner, but make sure that they are safe and that their workplace is supporting them to overcome the difficulties that they're facing.”

In addition, the company believes in diversity and inclusion, and pushes that agenda in an organic way.

For example, if there is a position opening and it is noticed that talented women have not applied for the job, the leadership encourages them to apply, and many times they are successful. They are also encouraged to participate in available development courses.

Now, 46 per cent of the company’s leaders, directors and above, are women, including the CEO. In TT, the members of the senior leadership team are all women.

“We believe we make better decisions when we have a more diverse leadership team.”

According to Boon, the hope is to get people more comfortable talking about GBV, encourage people to seek help and change the attitude of society around it.

“It's not an easy topic for anybody, and just breaking that barrier of having leaders start to create the safety for everybody to recognise that this is a problem globally and in our region in particular, that really is the sort of tangible outcome that we want.

“If we are able to set an example of an employer that supports its employees and encourages other employers to do the same, then that is a positive thing. We see ourselves as having a big responsibility in this region. Many members of the public expect us to make a stand on certain things in a positive way.

“We're one of the most recognised brands in Flow, and we want to use that responsibility in a positive way. If we can impact positively one victim of gender-based violence, or if we can even prevent that from happening, that's a positive outcome for us.”

He is happy to have seen progress since the policy was implemented. This year alone, five people used the policy to get help that was customised to their particular situations. And, he pointed out, although the company does not contact the police when such situations are brought to their attention, employees are encouraged to take that step.