Should Keriann Malone and her young daughter find themselves in a violent situation, they likely would know what to do.
The pair was part of a group of women who attended a free self-defence class at the Tortola Judo Club on Saturday as part of activities for this Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“You are learning these techniques; don’t try to be fast,” Mark Hooper said as he instructed the women who stood in bare feet on the cushioned floor of a Pasea Estate building. “If you do these techniques a hundred or two hundred times, you won’t have to think hard about doing them.”
The class was helpful, Ms. Malone said. “It is important for everyone, women and men, to protect themselves from the dangers out there,” she said. “I am surprised there aren’t any more mother-daughter or mother-son pairs here to take advantage of this.”
Also this month, the Domestic Violence Act, which was passed by the House of Assembly last year, is scheduled to be proclaimed, according to Lorolie Connor, the coordinator of the Office of Gender Affairs.
See the Oct. 4, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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