Teens Raising Awareness for Gender Based Violence
From the 12th to the 21st of July, Createfuturegood a non-profit organization based in Trinidad and Tobago, hosted a workshop for young artists and activists to raise awareness for gender based violence amongst teens. I was very fortunate to be a part of this wonderful process filled with such amazing and talented people. At the workshop they taught us what exactly gender based violence was and we (the participants) got to design and paint a mural.
What is gender based violence you might ask? Gender based violence is any harm whether physical, verbal or mental to any person based on their sex, gender and gender expression. In my country (Trinidad and Tobago) gender based violence is very prominent, especially in the verbal form. To raise awareness for this social issue we painted a mural along a well-used road known as the ‘Priority Bus Route’ in the east-west corridor of Trinidad.
The mural itself depicts the different types of gender based violence, but it highlights the one that has been over-looked the most in Trinbagonian culture; verbal abuse. The artwork depicts the hurtful words as weapons and shows the effects of gender based violence in the eyes of a person. But all the negative imagery fades into an empowering message which states ‘I am valid’ and ‘Speak out’.
Please stop the silence and speak out against gender based violence amongst youth. Also please follow createfuturegood on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube for more exciting projects! By Asia Dial Trinidad and Tobago, October 2017 Member of network Child and Adolescent Correspondents in Consultive Councils-IIN