Dr. Lorraine Vernal, family, women’s, children’s and adolescent ministries director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica is seeing the condition and plight of women and children in Jamaica as dire and is appealing to families to bring peace back into the home.
“Jamaica needs prayer and Christians,” said Vernal. Referencing Galatians 5:22-25, Vernal posited that many are great at talking about the Word of God, but do not live it.
According to a United Nations Women Report, 28 percent of Jamaican women have experienced intimate partner violence over their lifetime, she said. While the homicide rate for Jamaican women is nine per 100,000, it is six times higher than the world’s average of 1.6, she added. Vernal was the main speaker at the “End it Now” initiative streamed online from the North Street Adventist Church in Kingston, under the theme ‘’Bring Peace Home, Addressing Youth Violence at its Roots” on Aug. 28, 2021.
Dr. Lorraine Vernal, Family, Women, Children and Adolescent Ministries director for the church in Jamaica delivers a main EnditNow address on Aug. 28, 2021, in Kingston, Jamaica. [Photo: Screenshot]
Vernal intimated that the incidence of violence in the country has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has served to make a bad situation worse in some families.
“Jamaica is in trouble, and if nobody is able to help Jamaica, don’t you think Christians should be able to help?” she asked. “Yes, we should be able to help.”
The situation in the country was again highlighted through information shared from the Statistical Research Department of July 5, 2021. The data revealed that Jamaica is one of the most violent countries in the Caribbean. In 2020, there were approximately 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the island nation, making it the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean that year.
Vernal invited her listeners to become part of the solution in ending violence in the society by becoming advocates in order to help others. “There are people who need us, there are people who are crying and need our help, we cannot afford to remain silent,” Vernal said.
In giving advice to children to protect themselves from abusers, Vernal encouraged them not to remain silent on the subject of abuse. “If someone is making you uncomfortable, make noise, scream out or find somebody to tell.”
