Governor to the Virgin Islands His Excellency John S. Duncan OBE attracted applause from close to 300 young women from schools across the territory when he admonished them to walk away for abusive situations. Photo: VINO

Some of the almost 300 young ladies who participated in the seminar. Photo: VINO

In addition to being addressed by Governor John S. Duncan the young women were told of Government's plans for the education system by Mrs Brenda Lettsome-Tye who spoke on behalf of the Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Myron V. Valwyn. Photo: VINO

“If you find yourselves in later years in a relationship where someone is doing that to you, walk out. You are better than that,” Governor Duncan said.

It was the closing ceremony of Follow the Movement ‘Show Love’ seminar for school girls of the fourth and fifth forms of all schools in the territory hosted on Thursday October 15, 2015 in collaboration with ZONTA Club of Tortola and the Office of Gender Affairs.

The Governor said that some of the young ladies might have already encountered some form of violence in their lives.

“Domestic violence, you have heard all about that and many people have seen it. Relationships are all about eternal compromise. I have been in a relationship with my wife for 40 years; so I can certainly tell you about eternal compromise,” he told the gathering of young ladies.

Governor Duncan greeted the young ladies as Honourable Future Presidents, Hon Future Ministers, Hon Future members of the House of Assembly but was keen on letting them know that with such respect comes a long line of responsibilities.

He however singled out one of the fastest growing forms of violence which is manifesting itself via social media. “You can see it but the more worrying violence is the emotional violence which you see when people attack other people, cyber bullying, you have been hearing about it and they escape sanction.”

According to Governor Duncan such culprits think they are free from criticism or attack as they are high on the internet.

“We have a variation of that here in the form of some of our bloggers. Their views are extreme views, they are not views of the BVIslanders, and every time even before I came here, I looked at those bloggers I would see the voice of reason.”

“The voice of BVIslanders come out and say go sit down,” the Governor noted. He further advised, “It’s up to you when you see people doing things on the internet that they shouldn’t be doing, attacking other people, stand up for your values, the values of the BVI and tell them go sit down.”