Tomorrow the second women's empowerment rally will be held and women and men from all over the country are invited. Now they expect to get that full 20 thousand strong, but today organizer Anne Marie Williams told us that it's about more than just numbers.
The Rally moves off from the Memorial Park at 8:00 am and moves over to the Marion Jones Stadium for the rally. The rally ends at 12:30. Now some may criticize that this movement changes nothing - thousands of women standing around listening and cheering on uplifting speeches is not enough. Williams agrees that so much more needs to be done but that this movement is the step in the right direction.
When we discuss women empowerment - abuse and domestic violence comes to mind - cases like Maria Candelaria Chacon and Alida Catzim are brought into sharp focus. Williams says the rally will address this issue, but that above all - there needs to a shift in social conditioning.
Anne Marie Williams, Coordinator
"We are seeing more cases of domestic violence and gender based violence. But that is not to say that more cases are occurring. Perhaps, it could also be that there is an awareness and there is more reporting. But we know that the scourge of violence is one that is totally unacceptable. Again, it starts from ho we socialize our children early on in the home. We need to socialize our boys like we do our girls. A lot of times in the home women encourage boys to do thing to girls and girls cannot do back and if you encourage violence at an early age, it's institutionalize in schools. People grow up and if you have a parent who violates another. Sometimes children learn to be violent at the fathers or their mother's needs and so it's about our entire society, but the more we talk about it, it's an opportunity to do something about it. It's an opportunity to you see that that's going on in your family, just don't sit. Do something. There are services available. Yes I know the services are not always complete, but services are available."
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