PHOTO: L to R, Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Dr. Lloyd Richardson, MP Sylvia Meyers, Peridot Foundation President Hon. MP Gracita Arrindell, Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot Williams, Minister of Public Health Hon. Cornelius de Weever, Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Mos (behind Minster de Weever) and former Vice Prime Minister Theo Heyliger.
PHOTO BOARD MEMBERS: President of the Peridot Foundation Gracita Arrindell (fourth from right) surrounded by Peridot board members.
Gracita R. Arrindell, Founder of the Peridot Foundation states; on December 23rd 2012, we were happy to have made one step further in our battle to win the war against domestic or relational violence and keep the awareness on the front burner of the social agenda of our society.
The re-launch of the statue symbol of the awareness campaign; ‘GUARDING LOVED ONES YOU MAY LOOSE’ is at the center of this awareness campaign. At this event, the updated web-site of our foundation was revealed as well in the presence of several invited guests, which included Prime Minister Mrs. Sarah Wescot-Williams, Minister of Public Health Cornelius de Weever, Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Mos, former Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Heyliger, and Daneshka Sprott.
We take this opportunity to say thank you to all who took time out of their -end of the year- busy schedule and lend their support to this event. We are particularly great full to our sponsors who made this event possible, including Obersi- Xerox, Windward roads, Ennia, Ace, Atlantis Casino, Sol Sint Maarten, Scotia Bank, the Police Force and the Police Drumband. A special gratitude goes out to Kurt Ruan and Alvin Prescod, and management of Le Grand Marche supermarket for providing the space to hold the ceremony."
Gracita; "We are very excited to be moving forward slowly but surely towards meeting one of our main objectives; worldwide fundraising through the sale of our 12 inch bronze statue via our website www.peridotsxm.org. The proceeds from the sale will go among others towards awareness campaigns in schools, businesses, assisting shelters for abused victims, the police organization for training in the area of victims support, etc. Our foundation makes an appeal to the local business community who has not yet made any contribution to this worthy cause to visit our website and purchase a statue.
I ask the question; If the support does not come from within our own society, how can we expect for others outside of Sint Maarten to care enough to lend their support and make a contribution.
Since the re-launch in December 2012, we are happy to report that our website has had a steady increase in traffic. According to our Google and control panel stats we are receiving at least 3 to 4 unique visitors per day with page views of over 200 and a whopping 2400+ hits as recent as January 27th 2013".
"We are not there yet, and have a long- yet encouraging- way to go before meeting our goals. Our foundation has been prominent and effective in raising domestic abuse awareness and will continue to do so little by little, every day.
As we continue to update and complete our website, several plans for the future of this website includes, FAQs about the common abuse signs and behavioral patterns in women and children and some other special highlights and statistics, derived from events including Sint Maarten.
Domestic or relational violence comes in many shape and forms. Domestic or relational violence, is physical as well as mental aggression. As a civil community we must remain vigilant, be proactive in preventing abuse, as well as report all forms of domestic violence to the police or the public prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s offices who we highly commend for placing this subject on the front burner of their policies as well.
We keep in our cross- hairs the many victims of violence including, those cases which are not yet solved, including the past and recent murders related to domestic or relational violence.