I recently attended a memorial service to mark the one year anniversary of a woman who was kidnapped and found dead a few days later. It shook me to my core.

For the last decade or so, there has been an increase in violent crimes in Trinidad, with an alarming number of them being against women. Dozens of women and young girls have been reported missing; some were kidnapped and their remains found, some kidnapped and never found, some have disappeared, and others have been victims of horrific crimes – in some cases by their relatives or partners, other times by strangers.