The Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams addressed the attendants to the Safe Haven Women’s Festival on the Clem Labega Square on Saturday.
Safe Haven celebrates November as the month for creating awareness against Domestic Violence. The 25th of November is also the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women. "The theme for our gathering here today is appropriately Don’t Turn Your Back on Domestic violence. While this is a serious issue we want to celebrate the fact that we can get together and highlight domestic violence and violence in general on St. Maarten and celebrate the organizations that combat this very serious issue. We must never become complacent on this issue and remember that domestic violence translates into community violence," commented the PM.
The Prime Minister continued by stating that as long as there is violence in homes on St. Maarten there is violence that affects the community. "This event is about getting together and recognizing the many things that touch us with regards to violence in the households. We need to keep domestic violence on the front burner and support the victims that may not have the opportunity to come out publically. There are people in our workplace, within our schools, churches and social circles that are experiencing domestic violence and are afraid to speak out, that is why it is important that an organization such as Safe Haven is there to ensure that those people are looked after. This is our country, this is our land and if there are people suffering domestic violence that means that we are all sharing in those that are suffering domestic violence. As long as violence lives anywhere in our communities it is everyone’s problem. Abuse affects us all, abuse of women, abuse of children, abuse of animals, abuse of all those vulnerable in the community and it is through the various organizations, including Safe Haven, that together with Government we can eliminate this very sad fact within our community," concluded the PM at the event.