Rev. Marie Berbick still remembers several of the women she had assisted in rescuing from abusive relationships, including a young lady whose husband brought her to a deserted area in St Thomas to kill her back in 2014.
Berbick had partnered with two other women, the late Rev. Maria Azan and Marcia Wright to start Sisters Uplifted through Prayer, Healing, Empowerment and Restoration (SUPHER) the year before. The three combined their resources, skills and the knowledge gained from their lived reality to provide support for several women who felt helpless, including the young lady who was brought to St Thomas to be killed. She ran when she realised the fate that awaited her and was eventually rescued by a police officer who was also a part of SUPHER.
“She is doing pretty well now. She has divorced the man [and] she is remarried. She is a beautiful young lady but she suffered so much trauma, her self esteem was so so poor,” she recounted.
Rev. Berbick hopes to extend another form of assistance to hurting women on November 25 through the Repositioned International Women’s Conference which will be taking place at the AC Marriot Hotel in Kingston from 9 am to 5 pm.
The conference is aimed at exposing these women to speakers who can help remove the spiritual shackles that still bound them because of their past hurt.
“Persons have been through trauma, some of them from their childhood, some have been abused, some have been raped, some have gone through trauma from relationships, divorce, some have gone through the trauma of rejection and they are unhealed, so there are a lot of soul wounds that women have not dealt with and this is what the Lord wants us to address with this conference,” said Rev. Berbick.
She finds that there are a lot of women, even in the church, who are at a crossroads. As such, the different speakers will speak about issues related to the mind, body, and spirit. The ultimate desire is to reposition broken and confused women so that they can achieve their Godly purposes. Rev. Berbick noted that some of these women have put up walls because of the hurt they have been through. This hurt continues to manifest itself in their relationships, on the job and even in their interactions at church.
“This is not an angry women movement, this is not a feminists movement, this is far from it,” the pastor stated, before adding, “Even though we are empowering women, we are not angry at men. We are just seeking to make sure that women are taken care of, the way that they ought to be.”
Among the speakers for the event are, Bishop Christine Haber, Dr Charmaine Gooden Monteith and Pastor Diane Hanson from Jamaica. There will be other speakers from Jamaica, the US and the UK. Proceeds from the conference will go towards SUPHER’s Outreach Ministry for abused women.
Berbick, who migrated to the US in 2018, says the aim is to provide skills training for women through SUPHER. The women will be taught how to do hair, nails and social media management.
“In dealing with women who have been abused, we realised that a lot of them won’t leave for economic reasons. Some of them, they can’t take care of themselves financially. So what we want to do is to empower them to be able to get out of these relationships by making sure that we can provide them with a skill, that they can utilise to earn an income and take care of themselves,” Berbick said.
Local law enforcement officials continue to express concern about the alarming numbers of domestic violence cases in Jamaica. In the last six years, some 37,758 domestic violence reports were made to the police, the majority of which involved intimate partners.
“Deputy Superintendent of Police Jacqueline Dillon, who heads the Domestic Violence Intervention Care programme, including the network of Domestic Violence Intervention Centres islandwide, told the Freedom Come Rain newspaper earlier this year that the majority of the victims are females, and in several cases, they are sympathetic towards their abuser.
“Many victims oftentimes are reliant on the abuser for support and has no other support system,” she said while pointing out that, “[There is] fear also as emotional and financial abuse often times erodes a victim’s confidence and ability to seek help.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness indicated last month that the government is planning to introduce legislation that will require Jamaicans to report known cases of domestic violence given the alarming increase in interpersonal violence.
November 25, the same day as the Repositioned International Women’s Conference, is commemorated internationally as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) and marks the start of the 16 days of activism to eliminate violence against women and girls.
