KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY
With its mission to reduce and ultimately eliminate domestic violence and abuse in its various manifestations, Women of Substance, led by Onika Mars, is celebrating five years.
Mars, from Castara, Tobago, said she is “beyond excited.”
“Every time I think about it, I think about where Women of Substance came from in terms of the birth five years ago,” an upbeat Mars told Newsday.
She recalled the negativity she encountered when she decided to establish the non-governmental organisation.
“People were saying, ‘Onika, you going into that? Onika, you want to fight up with those women?
“But what the critics did to me was fuel my fire. I was just determined to go on and make it work and learn as I go along my journey.”
Mars added, “I know that God gave me a mandate to help women, to give them that hope and encouragement, to let them know that I am a survivor and God would have intervened and delivered me from the situation and he could do it for you. I put on blinders, and I said, ‘Let me just focus on the task ahead and go forth.’”
Mars does not have any current statistics on the prevalence of domestic violence in Tobago. But she observed that most victims go back to the abuser.
“I listened and I smiled because for me, it was never me fighting up with victims. What I saw is God calling me into ministry and me walking in obedience. If God calls me to something, why not? He knows that some women would go back, he knows the challenges of having an NGO, never being a part of an NGO before, never even knowing anything about the NGO world.”
She recalled the birth of Women of Substance in 2017.
“It came from three persons who brought the same message, that it was time to start an NGO to assist women.
“I know that God confirms stuff to me in threes, because I’ll hear it once, I’ll hear it twice and I was like, ‘Okay, God, just confirm one more time if it’s you,’ and because I am aware of that, when I got the third confirmation, I was like, ‘Okay.’”
Mars quickly got to work registering the NGO.
Looking back, she said the journey has been exciting.
[caption id="attachment_958752" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Among the projects which Women of Substance has undertaken to help victims of abuse is its recently-launched Shangril-La which offers psychosocial support, a beauty corner, online course option, computer access and computer literacy. [/caption]
“It is a lot of work and people see what they consider the glory, but they don’t know the story. People think its easy work – it’s a lot of work. But it’s not something that I don’t enjoy, and I just want to encourage corporate Trinidad and Tobago and of course the citizens to support NGOs like Women of Substance and others who are reaching out to vulnerable women to offer assistance to them.”
In its five years, her NGO has run several projects.
“We have the sit and chat domestic violence support group – Sit and Chat by Onika Mars – where we invite survivors and victims to sit and chat in a safe space about their experiences
