News Releases

UWI-CADV Join Forces in Fight Against Domestic Violence

For Release Upon Receipt - December 14, 2023

St. Augustine


[L-R] Dr. Sue Ann Barratt Head of IGDS, Dr Camille Samuel in-coming president of CADV, Mrs. Diana Mahabir-Wyatt co-founder of CADV, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal The UWI St Augustine Professor Rose- Marie Belle Antoine, Ms Roberta Clarke Immediate Past President of CADV, Dr Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma Director of the School of Education, Dr. Talia Esnard Head of Department of Behavioural Sciences and Ms. Sabrina Mowlah-Baksh General Manager CADV all stand in support at the MoU signing between The UWI St Augustine and CADV.  

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago. December 14, 2023 – “As a society, we must reject abuse in all forms and become intolerant of violence in homes and in our schools. We must recognise that the increase which we now see in school violence is not divorced from the violence that our children are witnessing at home and within their communities.” This is the powerful vision for the Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV), articulated by incoming President Dr. Camille Samuel, also Deputy Campus Registrar at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) St Augustine Campus, in a recent newspaper article. Her impactful words are timely as The UWI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CADV on Tuesday, December 12th, 2023 at the Office of the Campus Principal. 

As prominent advocates in the fight against domestic violence, this MoU is aimed at supporting the UWI and CADV in confronting, mitigating, preventing and eliminating gender inequality, gender-based violence and more specifically domestic violence. It will target the core of these issues and institute both individual and community-wide cultural change. Some of the areas of focus include:

-          Providing post-graduate students from various faculties at The UWI with internships at the CADV.

-          Capacity building with key personnel through certificate and short course programmes.

-          Collaborating on programmatic interventions and grant-based research projects while sharing resources that aid in the CADV’s purpose fulfilment.

-          Cooperating in the areas of mentoring, activism, movement building, and advocacy as well as hosting joint academic showcases that bring further awareness to the mission. 

Additionally, the CADV and The UWI's Institute of Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) have a shared vision with coordinating partners, the School of Education and the Department of Behavioral Sciences. Importantly, holistic education is key to the shared objective of this partnership with deliberate advocacy to establish presence, visibility and impact to transform gender relations in the Caribbean. 

Furthermore, at the signing ceremony, Ms. Roberta Clarke, immediate Past President of the CADV emphasised that The UWI-CADV partnership would derive more, “targeted evidenced-based intervention that may shift hearts and minds…we hope to draw on [The UWI’s] research because it helps us understand the causes, consequences and the prevalence of the issue that we are dealing with and to track how that is changing through interventions from organisations such as ours.” 

In closing the proceedings, Ms. Sabrina Mowlah-Baksh General Manager CADV, formally announced the incoming president of the CADV, Dr. Camille Samuel. As the third President of CADV in thirty-eight years of operation, Ms. Baksh underscored the importance of this agreement as being the singular first step in demonstrating a commitment to building and strengthening partnerships.

This UWI-CADV partnership of mutuality would be solidified with the staging of the upcoming International Women’s Day conference in March 2024 as the first official collaborative event. Moreover, this alliance opens doors for exciting discoveries and innovations, ultimately driving the expansion of knowledge and proposing solutions to issues that are critical to our safety and well-being.

END 

About The University of the West Indies

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region for the past 75 years. 

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Global Campus, and global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. 

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world. 

The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean in the World University Rankings, it is also in the top 25 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action. 

2023 marks The UWI’s 75th anniversary. The Diamond jubilee milestone themed “UWI at 75. Rooted. Ready. Rising.” features initiatives purposely designed and aligned to reflect on the past, confront the present, and articulate plans for the future of the regional University. 

Learn more at www.uwi.edu  

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