About the Project
In January 2008 the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (managed by UNIFEM), UNICEF, and the Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS)1 at the University of West Indies, St. Augustine campus signed a joint partnership to advance this action research project. The Project seeks to break the silence on the taboo subject of child sexual abuse (CSA)/incest and its implications for HIV throughout Trinidad and Tobago by empowering children, parents, communities, policy makers and service providers who work in child
protection, HIV/AIDS and women’s rights. The project uses the following strategies:
1) Building partnerships between research institutions, HIV/AIDS, women’s and
children’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs), service providers, relevant
governmental institutions and policy makers;
2) Action-oriented research aimed at understanding the links between gender, CSA/
incest and HIV transmission, and reducing the vulnerability of youth to CSA/incest
and HIV;
3) Developing the capacity of service providers (education, health, NGO, governmental,
police, community) to address CSA/incest and implications for HIV;
4) Raising awareness among policy makers and service providers to in!uence new
institutional policies and protocols and a national policy that will address CSA/incest
and implications for HIV.
The long-term goal of the Project is to reduce the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA)/
incest and its implication for risky sexual behaviour and HIV. (To achieve this goal, the Project
will produce new research "ndings and a best practice research model, which will begin to be
disseminated during the third year (Phase III) of the Project.)
The short-term objectives of the Project are to:
1. Generate new knowledge and understanding of CSA/incest and the implications for
HIV
2. Empower women, men, girls and boys to understand and address CSA/incest and its
implications on the spread of HIV through action research
3. Encourage service providers to revise (or) enhance policies and procedures related to
CSA/incest, which conform to international human rights standards.
