Nurses to March Against Gender-Based Violence

Scores of nurses are expected to participate in the international Orange Day March on Saturday (March 24), which is aimed at bringing awareness to the issue of violence against women and girls.

The march will begin at 7:00 a.m. at Emancipation Park in New Kingston and end at the St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Cross Roads, St. Andrew, where a formal ceremony will take place, with presentations from government and private-sector officials.

The event is being spearheaded by LASCO/Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) Nurse of the Year 2017/2018, Natalie Hylton-Levy.

It will feature the Tivoli Gardens Marching Band, and the nurses will have banners with messages denouncing gender-based violence.  The proceeds from the march will go to the women’s shelter in Montego Bay, St. James.

“It is open to anybody who wants to come, because we need to raise awareness against gender-based violence,” said Mrs. Hylton-Levy.

Chairman of the NAJ, Dr. Leila Dehaney, highlighted the need for Jamaicans to stand up against violence against women and girls.

“If we do not rise up as a country, as professionals to say to the country, ‘we can’t continue like this’, then the scourge will continue, so I totally endorse the march,” she told JIS News.

President of the NAJ, Carmen Johnson, said the issues to be addressed should concern all well-thinking persons and “their support will ensure that we empower our women and children to survive”.

The Orange Day March, first held in 2015, is an initiative of the UNiTE campaign Global Youth Network.

It calls on activists, governments and the United Nations (UN) partners to mobilise people and highlight issues relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls.