National Level Activites

BARBADOS
CAFRA Barbados is carrying forward the language training, by engaging several members in Spanish Classes.

BELIZE
BOWAND teamed up with the Department of Women’s Affairs and the Family Court to establish a Network of female attorneys to provide free legal consultation and/or representation for female victims who cannot afford to pay. BOWAND also successfully hosted the Regional Committee Workshop and Community outreach in Belize.

CUBA
The Research on Teenage Pregnancy was shared and training conducted with adolescents to prevent early first pregnancies.

CURACAO
CAFRA’s National Representative, Jacqueline Martis, who participated in an eight-country study of Tourism and the Sex Trade in the Caribbean, issued a Press Release stating that the study’s findings showed that women from Colombia and the Dominican Republic had been hired as topless dancers, but then forced into prostitution by their employers.

She called for action regarding this abusive practice, a review of work permit requirements for dancers and the establishment of a support network for sex workers.

Some fifteen women completed a course on Women and Political Decision-Making in Curacao. The course was organised by CAFRA Curcao with three main aims:

 to increase the assertiveness of women in political decision-making

 to create a support network for women in leadership positions; and

 to create a women-friendly environment based on knowledge of gender analysis.

Though the use of participatory methodologies such as role-playing, small group discussions and fact-finding interviews, participants explored such topics as gender analysis, personal mission and vision statements, the political history of Curacao and internationasl women’s human rights instruments.

DOMINICA, ST. LUCIA, GRENADA, ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
These four CAFRA member countries were engaged in follow-up activity to the research on the Impact of new Trade Agreements on the living conditions of rural women in the Windward Islands.

Building on the results of the 1998 survey which showed that rural women were negatively affected, further research was carried out to identify and implement alternative means of sustainable livelihoods.

GUYANA
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health was the theme of a one-hour television panel discussion held on May 27 on NBTV to mark International Action Day for Women’s Health (May 28). The panelists were Frederick Cox, Executive Director Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) and Andrea Rohlehr, Administrator of the Guyana Cancer Society, with Patricia Hackett, CAFRA Guyana National Representative as Moderator.

The intention was to sensitise adolescent boys and girls, as well as men and women about their reproductive health, to clear up myths and to offer the public an opportunity to air their views on the issue.

JAMAICA
International Women’s Day was celebrated in Jamaica with a Workshop on “Gender Relations Among Youth Towards the Year 2000. The seventy-seven participants were taken through a series of exercises on gender roles.

Puerto Rico
CAFRA Puerto Rico provided a needed service for women by setting up an Institute where women could be informed on what was provided for them in the law.

SURINAME
CAFRA Suriname completed training of four hundred and sixty (460) Police Officers under a Project financed by the IDB, and implemented in collaboration with the Suriname Police Force.

As a result, policemen in Suriname are no longer hiding behind ancient traditions that said domestic violence is a private matter, or that it is a man’s right to chastise his wife as he sees fit.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
In September, 1999, CAFRA Trinidad and Tobago launched its mentoring programme, aimed at developing leadership by creating learning opportunities for 26 young women through workshops, seminars, attachment to mentors and work placements and community presentations.

ISVO
CAFRA St. Croix participated in the Conference on Herbal Medicines held in St.Croix in June 1999 and sponsored by the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD), IICA, and the US Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture.