Domestic violence

TRAILS UP NORTH
Glo Abaeo Tuazon

BAGUIO CITY -- The “Save Our Women Movement” recently held a forum entitled “Understanding victims and survivors of domestic and intimate relationship violence at the CRC Hall of the Bishops House in Baguio.

The activity was basically a forum geared towards spreading awareness to realities of horrible effects of violence against the so called weaker sex. Patricia Ann Gallardo, head of the organization has been conducting similar seminars and workshops for quite a few years already, advocating the cause of battered and abused women in Baguio and surrounding areas.

Herself once a victim, she speaks in behalf of the women who have undergone or still undergoing the same turmoil in life. Most of the battered women have tendencies to keep to themselves and withdraw from the world, not knowing where and whom to run to for help.

In the course of time since the law tightened its grip on these abuses and the abusers, the victims are often left scarred and scared. And most of those who wanted to help do not have sufficient knowledge to deal with them too. This was a very good chance for every concerned entity to have learned the “effective (right) and harmful (wrong) ways of helping and treating victims and survivors.”

Gallardo pointed out the activity was meant to help both laypersons and professional support-persons understand psychological make-up of an abused female partner in order to treat and assist her better.

This forum was opened to the public so that everybody could join, learn and exchange ideas. Concerned community leaders, medical practitioners, law enforcement officers, legal professionals, social workers, guidance counselors and other support-persons were invited to attend.

SOV members spoke on forms of domestic violence, gender insensitivity as root cause of DIV, hard-to-understand psychological make-up of a victim and other issues related to the theme:

Speakers included Judge Jennifer Humiding of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Lagawe-Hingyon, Ifugao, clinical psychologist Dr. Lilian Gandeza, dean of the College of Human Sciences of Saint Louis University; Nicole Loy, founding president and board secretary of SOV, respectively, plus a special guest-survivor. -- Email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com